Areva gets deeper into renewables with Ausra purchase

[bananas]

From yesterday:

http://www.cleanbreak.ca/2010/02/08/areva-gets-deeper-into-renewables-with-ausra-purchase/

Areva gets deeper into renewables with Ausra purchase

France’s Areva SA is known mostly as a designer of light-water nuclear reactors, builder of transmission and distribution systems, and a miner of uranium, so the announcement today that it has purchased 100 per cent of concentrated solar power company Ausra Inc. came as a surprise. Ausra, based in Mountain View, Calif., was founded by Canadian inventor Dr David Mills. Mills developed the underlying technology as a student and professor in Australia, but located the company in Silicon Valley as part of a major venture capital infusion from Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Mills is currently the company’s chief scientific officer.

Areva said today that the acquisition marks its entry into the solar thermal power market, where it intends to be the leader. The market itself is expected to grow 20 per cent annually over the next decade. This is just the latest in a string of acquisitions and deals aimed at broadening Areva’s portfolio of renewable energy products and services. The company has been pushing heavily into biomass power and has been building biomass/biogas plants in the U.S., Brazil, India, Thailand and other countries. It is dabbling in hydrogen production and fuel cell systems, and through its acquisition of Germany’s Multibrid is trying to establish itself as a future leader in offshore wind.

It’s going to take big, deep-pocketed companies like Areva to really push deployment of solar thermal and other promising renewables, so this acquisition of Ausra is a good sign of where the market is heading. Given that the nuclear renaissance simply isn’t materializing as expected, it’s wise for Areva and other big energy conglomerates to hedge their bets.

[phantom power]

1. I can see where they'd have some synergy with the heat-exchange systems.

I keep thinking it might be nice to Do Something about this trend of American business being bought out by foreign companies.

[Dogmudgeon]

2. They've been invested in wind systems since at least 2007

Areva has always had non-nuclear projects.

In 2007, they acquired a wind energy company, and now have North Sea wind development contracts. They're also developing "Smart Grid" technology.

--d!

[Nihil]

3. Hmmm ...

> they acquired a wind energy company,
> and now have North Sea wind development contracts.
> They're also developing "Smart Grid" technology.

That'll put the cat amongst the pigeons ...

"No more black or white;
No more left no more right."

:evilgrin:

[Dogmudgeon]

4. The cat and the pigeons have been cohabitating for years

Even in the 1970s, most of the "nuclear industry" was part of larger energy and electric companies.

Other than Areva, sucn companies are GE, Siemens, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, BP ("Beyond Petroleum"). Abengoa is the parent company of Solucar, which built the enormous CSP tower in Spain that was news here for months, and Bechtel is one of its largest stockholders. Single-technology companies are usually super-specialists; http://www.neimagazine.com/story.asp?sectioncode=147&storyCode=2052302">Japan Steel Works is the sole manufacturer of nuclear containment vessels for big commercial reactors, and is also a prime manufacturer of katana swords and other traditional weaponry. They currently have a monopoly, but with over 200 nuclear reactors in the works, there are several companies which want to compete.

When jpak was active in posting press releases about solar and wind projects, I thought it was ironic-funny that s/he was also adamantly opposed to nuclear development, since a great many of the projects were from companies previously identified (usually in derogatory terms) as nuclear companies. But who would better develop new energy technology?

Most of the world has no interest whatsoever in what remains of the nuclear Culture War, from anti-nuke NGOs to bloggers to the Great DU Nuclear War. The companies I mentioned make their money providing energy, and will do so using any technology they can. In the unlikely event that cold fusion ever works out, they're going to get very interested in palladium. But at least they are not so eager these days to partner with agribiz.

--d!