Bill Gates fund invests in automated solar installation platform Terabase

Terabase Energy, a US start-up that provides software, automation and digital deployment solutions, has raised USD 44 million (EUR 43m) in a funding round led by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures to commercialise its technology for automated solar plant construction.

Apart from Bill Gates’ multi-billion dollar clean energy fund, the Series B funding initiative was co-led by venture capital firm Prelude Ventures and backed by Terabase’s existing investor SJF Ventures and others.

Terabase will allocate the fresh capital to scale up its proprietary digital and robotic automation platform and achieve full commercial deployment next year. The solution, which the technology firm says is the first one of its kind, automates the development, construction and operation of large-scale solar parks. The platform manages the entire project lifecycle from the point of land acquisition to plant construction, through robotics-assisted workflow.

“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," said Carmichael Roberts, co-leader of the investment committee at Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

The latest fundraising brings the total amount of capital secured by Terabase to USD 52 million. Three months ago, the company finished its first commercial deployment of robots to install First Solar panels with its Terafab system.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.977)

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