Ausra makes solar thermal simple and cheap

There are many ways in building a solar-thermal system and one of the most familiar is the parabolic troughs. Meamwhile, a former Australian academic, David Mills, founder of the solar-thermal firm Ausra, has one way of building the system. The design is called the Compact Linea Fresnel Reflector that uses much less land and others. The system uses nearly flat mirrors at ground level, focusing the sun's light onto water-filled steel tubes. It directly drives a steam turbine in generating electricity when the water boils. The system has relative simplicity of manufacturing flat mirrors compared with parabolic mirrors, as well as less subject to wind loads.