Terabase Energy Receives Financing Influx to Deploy PV Plant Automation Platform – Solar Industry

Go to Source August 2, 2022

Terabase Energy has received a $44 million Series B financing co-led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Prelude Ventures with additional participation by SJF Ventures and other existing investors. The round brings Terabase’s total funding to $52 million and will be used to support the company’s mission to reduce the cost and increase the scalability of solar by building a digital and robotic automation platform for the development, construction and operation of utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) power plants.

“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,” says Carmichael Roberts of Breakthrough Energy Ventures. “The way the industry designs and builds large scale projects needs to be rethought if we are to reach the very rapid growth required to meet net-zero goals. To enable the TW-scale deployment of solar needed to decarbonize, we believe a breakthrough is needed to transform how PV power plants are built. Terabase’s solution has tremendous potential to reduce costs and accelerate the deployment of large scale solar, and we look forward to working with them on that mission.”

Terabase has built a digital platform for managing the full project life cycle of utility-scale solar and combined it with a construction automation system to transform the way solar power plants are deployed. Terabase’s automated field-factory, capable of 24/7 operations, can significantly compress construction schedules and reduce costs while ensuring higher build quality. The robotics-assisted workflow will also improve worker health and safety by eliminating manual lifting of heavy panels and steel components under often difficult outdoor weather conditions.

“This investment is validation of our vision for rapidly deploying solar at the TW scale,” states Matt Campbell, co-founder and CEO of Terabase Energy. “It took 50 years for the world to build the first TW of solar, but we need at least 50 additional TW built as quickly as possible to meet global decarbonization targets. This round of funding will allow us to continue to expand our team and make the investments necessary to achieve our mission.”

Terabase is working alongside project developers, owners, and engineering and construction firms to support the design, optimization and deployment of large-scale solar projects around the world. The new round of financing will enable full commercial deployment of the company’s integrated solution in 2023; it comes shortly after Terabase announced its first commercial project, a large deployment of robotics in solar plant construction.

“Terabase’s software and automation platform allows for developers and EPCs to effectively design and manage their projects from the point of land acquisition to rapid and high-quality construction through automation,” adds Tim Woodward, managing director of Prelude Ventures. “This is an essential solution for solar to get to Gigawatt-scale projects around the world.”

“Our only hope to truly solve the climate crisis is to deploy clean technologies at a much larger scale to reach different areas of the economy than before,” concludes Sheldon Kimber, CEO of Intersect Power, a Terabase customer. “The Terabase platform is an exciting innovation to deploy more solar faster and we are delighted to be a Terabase partner.”