The company says it's developed new technologies that could cut the cost of power produced by solar thermal plants to 8 cents per kilowatt. It uses batteries to provide power when the sun isn't shining.
"We can be cost competitive," said Robert Fishman, CEO of Ausra.
The company has projects under way in Australia and Portugal, but sees the southwestern U.S. as the Saudi Arabia of solar thermal.
Ausra founder Peter Le Lievre says the U.S. needs to invest in a better grid system to transport power from the Southwest to the rest of the country.
Still, Travis Bradford, an analyst with Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development, says the solar thermal announcements haven't been convincing.
"There are a lot of plans," he said. "Plans are a dime a dozen."