Ausra scores $25.5M for new equipment sales focus

Mountain View, Calif.-based Ausra said it closed on $25.5 million in equity funding from its existing investors for its new business focus on selling solar thermal equipment.

Ausra launched as a project developer but said in January it would focus on selling equipment for solar thermal energy plants to generate immediate revenue. In conjunction with that news, the company laid off 10 percent of its staff (see Ausra shaves staff as it chases immediate revenue).

But today Ausra said it secured money to expand and accelerate the equipment-supply business. Founding investors Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers contributed to the round, as well as the new investors in Ausra's last funding round: KERN Partners of Alberta, Canada; Generation Investment Management of London, England; and Starfish Ventures of Melbourne, Australia.

Ausra previously raised $133 million in venture equity and debt financing (see Ausra grabs $60M, loses founder). Katherine Potter, Ausra's vice president of communications, told the Cleantech Group today that the new funding brings Ausra to about $130 million in equity alone.

Ausra CEO Bob Fishman has said the equipment-sales business will sustain the company as it waits on permitting and transmission access. Ausra has signed a power-purchase agreement with San Francisco's Pacific Gas & Electric (NYSE: PCG) for a 177-megawatt plant Ausra plans to build (see PG&E, Ausra in 177MW solar thermal deal).

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