Former Sydney University professor Dr David Mills couldn’t find funding for his giant solar power plants in Australia, but US investors had no qualms wagering at least $40 million on the idea. Dr Mills’ first factory for the mass production of ‘solar parks’ will open in Las Vegas later this month. It hosted a gaggle of interested Australian politicians last night in Nevada, including the NSW Environment Minister, Verity Firth. The power plants, conceived in Dr Mills’s Sydney University lab, will reflect sunlight with mirrors to boil water and use the steam to spin turbines, generating electricity for a price not much higher than that of a coal-burning power station. But, unlike some solar power systems, they can function when the sun isn’t shining by storing heat in insulated chambers for a rainy day, and continue steadily feeding power into the grid. The technology, some of which the company is keeping under wraps, is not complicated or particularly expensive, but it is being exploited in Nevada rather than NSW because that is where the financial backing is, Dr Mills said. ‘We’re not really talking about government money or subsidies, we’re trying to establish a level […]