ImpactAlpha, July 24 – The world needs to add more than 50 terawatts of solar capacity by 2050 to stave off catastrophic global warming. Investors are keying on startups to speed solar development and lower costs.
Berkeley, Calif.-based Terabase raised $25 million from Fifth Wall, along with EDP Ventures and existing investors, to roll out its construction automation software for large-scale solar power plants. The company’s Terafab “factory to make factories” in Woodland, Calif. uses digital twin modeling, robotics, and supply chain and inventory software to speed up solar plant construction. The factory is expected to begin commercial operations in the fall.
The fundraise follows Terabase’s $44 million Series B round last August from Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Prelude Ventures.
Solar design
Lithuania’s PVcase (short for PhotoVoltaic Computer Aided Solar Engineering) is tackling a related challenge: taming the multiple data sources that solar engineers need to design projects. PVcase says such “data risks” have become an industrywide constraint.
Utility-scale solar is poised for explosive growth, “yet it currently lacks the digital tools needed to meet the demand of the market,” said John Tough of Energize Ventures, which invested in PVcase’s $100 million Series B round along with Highland Capital and venture firm Elephant.
“Software solutions aimed at automating solar workflows and increasing data integrity are required for the market to become profitable and scalable.”
PVcase’s software features computer-aided design, modeling and analysis of solar projects. In early June, the Vilnius-based company acquired Anderson Optimization, which makes solar project siting software.
