Ausra continues to hog the limelight as the company has come up with a couple of significant developments over the past few days.

The company has not only launched its Kimberlina Solar Thermal Energy Plant in Bakersfield, CA, but it also built a 1.5MW solar plant to augment the Macquarie Energy-owned Liddell coal fired-power station in the NSW Hunter Valley that has just been commissioned.

According to theaustralian.news.com.au, Ausra's Bob Matthews has been lobbying Government in Australia to introduce a feed-in tariff for renewable energy operators where they are given a guaranteed premium over the market rate for electricity.

"I have inquiries for projects equal to thousands of megawatts around Australia," reportedly said Matthews. "But other than the coal-fired projects and some off-grid applications I can't compete right now with black energy and there's no incentives in the system to level the playing field."

The company was established last year by former University of Sydney solar research pioneer Professor David Mills. canberratimes.com.au highlighted that the "launch has been a vindication of optimism and innovation for Professor Mills, who left Australia in February last year after failing to attract support from the Howard government for his world-first solar thermal technology."