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VESKI Entrepreneur In Residence
Dr David Mills
Executive Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer and Founder, Ausra Inc.
Dr David Mills is VESKI's Inaugural Entrepreneur in Residence.
During a 9 day visit to Melbourne in early October 2009, Dr Mills successfully delivered a number of key note speeches to representatives from the Victorian investment, business, renewable energy, government & academic communities.
Dr Mills is known worldwide for pioneering Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) technology and for his work in non-imaging optics, solar thermal energy and PV systems over 32 years. More recently the company he founded, Ausra, has attracted interest from investors, government, media and consumers alike for its ability to effectively generate base load energy from the sun. Dr Mills is a natural choice as the first VESKI Entrepreneur in Residence.
Last year, Ausra opened a solar thermal manufacturing factory in Las Vegas and a small-scale power plant in the desert north of Los Angeles. It is now preparing to build a larger 177-megawatt power plant in central California, able to power 120,000 homes — roughly the equivalent of powering Canberra. Ausra is also developing solar thermal projects in Queensland and New South Wales.
Dr Mills is a former president of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) and served as inaugural chair of the International Solar Cities Initiative (ISCI). While at ISES, he chaired the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol for Renewable Energy in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy. A solar sterilizer design he originated won a World Health Organization award in 2002, and he was a finalist in the 2002 World Technology Awards for Energy.
He has published and refereed numerous academic reports and articles on solar energy in such publications as The Journal of Solar Energy and Applied Optics. At Ausra he leads the company's highly talented R&D team.
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