US based solar technology start-up Terabase Energy has raised $44 million Series B financing for its robotic automation platform for utility scale solar plants, from Bill Gates backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), venture capital firms Prelude Ventures and SJF Ventures, among others.

The new financing will enable it to achieve full commercial deployment of its integrated solution in 2023, it said.

Terabase’ digital platform comprises an automation construction system to deploy solar panels, leading to faster installation time, which is said to enable costs to come down eventually, making solar even more competitive. Its target is to drive down solar power prices below $0.01 per kWh by 2025.

A year back in August 2021, Terabase acquired a predictive solar energy modeling tool called PlantPredict from First Solar to enable energy predictions with advanced modeling options for utility scale PV applications.

A spin-out of the power plant technology group from SunPower Corporation in 2019, Terabase claims its robotics-assisted workflow will also improve worker health by eliminating manual lifting of heavy panels and steel components in outdoor conditions. A Terabase customer, Intersect Power calls the platform an ‘exciting innovation to deploy solar faster.

“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 BEV’s Carmichael Roberts. “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.”

Terabase says it has now raised a total of $52 million to support its plans to build a digital and robotic automation platform for the development, construction and operation of utility scale PV projects, with an eye to reduce cost and enhance scalability of solar.