Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a climate-focused venture capital firm linked to some of Earth’s richest individuals, has joined a $44 million bet on solar startup Terabase Energy.
Terabase aims to rapidly build new solar farms “on the terawatt scale,” CEO Matt Campbell said in a pronunciation. The startup claims its automated, on-site factory can already speed up factory construction and cut costs by employing robotic arms lifting heavy solar panels and connecting to sun followers. When asked for photos of the factory’s interior, Campbell pointed toptecheasy.com to previously published aerial photos and refused to share more, “for competitive reasons.”
Terabase also makes software tools to manage the design and construction of solar farms. The startup recently wrapped its first commercial projectwhere are robots Reportedly installed 10 megawatts of panels. There is a million megawatts in a terawatt, so the startup still has a long way to go to realize its ambitions.
Breakthrough Energy Ventures was founded by Bill Gates and its board members include Jeff Bezos and Masayoshi Son. The VC firm led the Terabase deal along with Lime and Amp Robotics investor Prelude Ventures.
Their investment comes when rich people are scrutinized for their outsized climate pollution. Gates’ private jet maybe not be as active as Taylor Swift’sbut the co-founder of Microsoft Reportedly owns several and has been privately flying”embarrassing pleasure.”
Other recent deals for solar startups include panel installer Zolar ($105 million) and solar grid developer Okra ($2.1 million).
