A Berkeley, California startup that automates solar panel installation has raised $44 million in a funding round co-led by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
Terabase Energy has already developed software to design solar panels and improve their efficiency in changing weather conditions. It plans to use the new funding to scale up its system for mass installation, aiming to reduce the cost of developing utility-scale solar projects.
The company finished its first commercial deployment of robots to install solar panels two weeks ago for a 400 megawatt project in central Texas, where robots installed 10 megawatts. “It’s a big stepping stone towards the future,” Campbell said. “Next year, we’re going to be scaling it to the hundreds of megawatts.”