More information on AREVA Solar’s Technology and a video tour of the facility is available here.

Utilizing Ausra’s management team and proven technology, this acquisition launches AREVA’s new solar energy business on a global scale.

Liddell Solar/Coal-Fired Power

By combining Ausra’s proven technology with AREVA’s years of project experience and world class Engineering, Procurement, and Construction skills, AREVA commits to building the most cost-effective concentrated solar power for energy customers around the world.

This acquisition reflects AREVA’s strategic objective to be the world leader in concentrated solar power. It also adds another important sustainable energy source to AREVA’s portfolio of renewable energy solutions, which already includes offshore wind and biomass.

AREVA has constructed more than 100 biomass facilities constructed around the world. Through ADAGE, a joint venture with Duke Energy, AREVA is using this expertise to build biopower (biomass to electricity) plants in the United States. Just last week ADAGE announced its third proposed facility in Washington State. AREVA’s activities in wind power are concentrated in large-scale offshore technology. Mulitbrid, the AREVA subsidiary, has built six 5 MW offshore wind turbines that are already operating in the German North Sea as part of the Alpha Ventus project.

Anil Srivastava, head of AREVA’s Renewables Business Group, summarized the importance of this saying, “by acquiring Ausra, AREVA has taken a major step forward to achieve its strategic ambition in renewables. The Group intends to become the world leader in the concentrated solar power market thanks to a reliable, cost-effective product.”

View the complete press release here.

Also, find out more information on AREVA’s renewable energies and ADAGE.

Noting that “conservation and renewable-energy sources are an essential and responsible part of the answer to our future energy needs; they just aren’t the whole solution,” he acknowledges “the intermittent nature of wind and solar power is a real problem. On-again/off-again power destabilizes the regional transmission grid through dramatic power swings created by changing weather conditions.”

This is why Morrison calls for full-time baseload power:

Tired attempts to link commercial nuclear power to vastly overblown cost and risk factors and defense wastes are irresponsible. Used commercial nuclear fuel is a valuable commodity that can be recycled, as is the routine in many of the world’s nuclear-energy countries. Approximately 95 percent of the used fuel in every commercial reactor can be recycled safely, thereby reducing dependence on foreign energy sources and minimizing the need for new uranium mines.

He also points out that it will take “multiple sources of power, perhaps all the options available to ensure reliable, affordable, environmentally responsible power is available to grow a vibrant regional economy.”

His whole piece, “Nuclear Power should not be Blindly Dismissed as Part of Total Energy Solution,” is definitely worth a read.