Dr. Thomas Caulfield, 50, an executive vice president with chip maker Novellus Systems, has joined solar tech company Ausra (he officially starts today) as its president and chief operating officer. Caulfield was hired to execute the company’s new business plan, shifting the company’s focus from developing large-scale solar thermal power projects to selling solar thermal systems for the distributed generation market.
Ausra CEO Robert Fishman blamed the credit freeze for the strategy shift. Back in January he told The San Jose Mercury News:
What a lot of people thought when they went out and signed 500- or – 900-megawatt power-purchase agreements was that it was easy to go from a 1-megawatt demo plant to a 900-megawatt project. That’s simply not reality. The finance market will not support it.
Caulfield is coming on board to execute this strategy. In a prepared statement Fishman said:
[Tom] He brings to Ausra the technology, product development and manufacturing expertise to diversify our capabilities and to complete our evolution from a power plant developer to a concentrated solar steam systems provider. Tom is the right person, at the right time, to accelerate deployment of our technology, lower costs and support Ausra’s global business development pipeline.
While the credit freeze left Ausra — and most clean energy developers — unable to secure the large, project finance loans it needed to develop its projects, the company remains well funded having secured some $85 million in VC funding over the past year alone. In April it secured $25.5 million. Last fall, right at the start of the credit freeze, the company announced a $60.6 million funding. Company backers include: Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Beyers, KERN Partners, Generation Investment Management and Starfish Ventures.
Areva, one of the world’s largest maker of nuclear reactors, has acquired Mountain View, Calif., -based solar-thermal equipment maker Ausra, 
