Ausra: Hey Nevada, here comes the sun

Hey, why not build a source to help the renewable energy industry in a place that uses a lot of power? Is this disingenuous?

Heck, it's what solar thermal power company Ausra is doing: The Australian company has decided to locate its first U.S. manufacturing plant in none other than the city of mega-watt neon, Las Vegas. The proposed 130,000-square-foot facility will build reflectors, towers, absorber tubes and other components that are necessary for solar thermal power plants.

Nevada's desert location puts it in the center of potential solar power development projects. Here's what Ausra CEO Bob Fishman says in the company's press release about the plant: "Ausra can fill four square miles with solar collectors every year from this one factory, enough to provide market-priced zero-pollution power to 500,000 homes. Americans want clean power, and are tired of the market fluctuations, price increases and pollution from fossil power plants."

The plant is supposed to come online in April 2008, and it will employ 50 people. In particular, the facility will provide the equipment for a project in California that Ausra announced last month with PG&E. Here's my blog about that project.