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US company Terabase Energy has raised $44 million in a funding round, in support of a digital and robotic platform for building utility-scale photovoltaic power plants.
Terabase Energy announced a $44 million Series B financing co-led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Prelude Ventures with additional investments from SJF Ventures and others, bringing the companys total financing to $52 million. Headquartered in Berkeley, California, the company was founded in 2018 by SunPower alumni. Matt Campbell, one of the founders and CEO, participated in pv magazine s 2021 roundtable , where he presented the companys approach.
“A lot of the work that needs to be done to optimize plant economics becomes quite complex and computationally intensive, which lends itself to a modern software-based solution,” said Campbell.
Terabase is on a mission to use software and automation to lower the cost and accelerate large-scale deployment of solar power. Its software suite includes cloud-based applications for plant design, solar energy modeling -PlantPredict- acquired by Terabase from First Solar, and construction management. The company also offers SCADA and power plant control solutions.
Founded by Bill Gates and backed by top business leaders, Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) has raised more than $2 billion in committed capital to support companies that are leading the world toward net-zero emissions. BEV intends to invest, launch and scale global companies that eliminate carbon emissions throughout the economy as soon as possible. BEV has invested in Terabase because it believes that software and automation are the way to reduce costs and accelerate large-scale solar power.
“In recent years, the solar industry has focused on technological improvements to solar panels and other hardware components, while the means and methods of engineering and construction have remained largely unchanged. The way the industry designs and builds large-scale projects needs to be rethought if we are to achieve the blazing-fast growth needed to meet net-zero energy goals,” said Carmichael Roberts, chief business officer of the investment committee at Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
“To enable the terawatt-scale solar deployment needed for decarbonization, we believe a breakthrough is needed that transforms the way photovoltaic power plants are built. Terabases solution has tremendous potential to reduce costs and accelerate large-scale solar deployment, and we look forward to working with them on that mission,” he added.
Terabase said its digital platform for managing the construction of a solar power plant from start to finish can transform the way solar plants are built. The automated factory can be installed on the solar plant site and run 24 hours a day with its robot-assisted workflow. Three months ago, the company announced the first commercial deployment in which robots installed 10 MW at a 400 MW project in central Texas.
“Terabases automation and software platform enables developers and EPCs to effectively design and manage their projects from land acquisition to high-quality, rapid construction through automation. This is an essential solution for bringing solar power to gigawatt-scale projects around the world,” said Tim Woodward, CEO of Prelude Ventures.
“This investment is validation of our vision to rapidly deploy terawatt-scale solar power,” said Matt Campbell. “It took the world fifty years to build the first terawatt (one million megawatts) of solar power, but we need at least an additional 50 terawatts to be built as soon as possible to meet global decarbonization goals. This round of financing will allow us to continue expanding our team and make the necessary investments to fulfill our mission.” |
