Terabase Energy Raises Fund From Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures

Terabase Energy, a US-based start-up, has raised USD $44 million in a Series B investment round led by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and venture capital company Prelude Ventures, among others, to accelerate the commercialization of its automated solar park building technology.

The increase brings the company’s total funding to US$52 million, up from US$6 million in 2020, and will be used to assist “solar scalability by establishing a digital and robotic automation platform for the development, construction, and management of utility-scale PV power plants.”

The California-based startup has stated that the funding will allow for the “full commercial deployment” of its device in 2023.

Terabase has said it had “built the first digital platform for managing the full project life cycle of utility-scale solar”, combining it with a construction automation system to “transform the way solar power plants are deployed”.

The company claims that its “automated field-factory” could operate around the clock and considerably decrease project construction timelines, lower costs, and ensure superior build quality, while also “improving worker health and safety” by eliminating human lifting of modules and steel components.

“In recent years, the solar industry has been focused on technological improvements of solar panels and other hardware components while the means and methods of engineering and construction have been largely unchanged,” said Carmichael Roberts of Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

“This investment is a validation of our vision for rapidly deploying solar at the Terawatt scale,” said Matt Campbell, co-founder, and CEO of Terabase Energy

“It took fifty years for the world to build the first Terawatt of solar, but we need at least 50 additional Terawatts built as quickly as possible to meet global decarbonization targets,” he added.