Ausra believes that Australia will become a “solar superpower” as the nation gears up to capitalise on its biggest natural resource – sunshine.

Praising Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s A$1.4 billion ($1 billion) Solar Flagships programme, Ausra Australia CEO Bob Matthews said the initiative will create an additional 1,000 megawatts of solar generation capacity--three times the size of the largest solar energy project currently operating anywhere in the world.

The government’s decision to fund construction of four major solar power plants was announced during a tour of the 2,000 megawatt Liddell coal/solar power augmentation station in the Hunter Valley, NSW, which uses Ausra’s Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) solar thermal technology.

Australia is planning to announce in the first half of 2010 successful tenders for projects that will make up the world’s biggest solar station. Tender specifications would be developed in the next six months or so. The announcement is part of the government’s A$4.65 billion clean energy initiative.

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