Terabase Energy lands US$ 6m funding round to supply ultra-cheap solar

• Solar start-up Terabase Energy has closed a US$ 6 million Series A financing round, revealing an objective to help drive down solar generation expenses to listed below US$ 0.01/ kWh by 2025.

The company was co-founded last year by 6 previous SunPower employees. It provides exclusive software, automation and implementation services for utility-scale projects, working together with EPCs, programmers and also independent power producers.

Its software suite uses electronic tools and AI-led approaches throughout the project growth process, helping reduce levelised cost of electrical power (LCOE) for solar projects by managing prices and determining potential performances.

PV Tech Power spoke with Terabase Energy in December of last year, when Matt Campbell exposed that while solar hardware costs have fallen by up to 88% in the previous 10 years, soft prices-- including development, EPC administration, labour and logistics-- had stopped working to comply with a comparable trajectory. This is where Terabase intends to make further financial savings to the benefit of LCOEs.

" There just hasn't been enough advancement related to it yet," Campbell informed PV Tech Power. "Hardware has actually seen tons of technology. Inverters today are 5MW, 1,500 V; when I began doing projects they were 100kW and also 400V. It's the very same point with panels, the same points with racking. So there have actually been huge amounts of development, lots of investment. However we haven't seen the very same in soft prices. The method we build projects today isn't that a lot various than the means they were constructed 10 or 15 years ago, even though the projects themselves have transformed significantly."

The financing round was led by SJF Ventures, an investment firm with experience in the solar field having formerly included the likes of Nextracker as well as groSolar-- which took place to be obtained by EDF Renewables-- in its investment stable.

Dave Kirkpatrick, MD at SJF Ventures, explained Terabase as a "best fit" for his business's goal of sustaining high growth, positive-impact ventures.

"It is unusual for us to be able to back such a veteran team. Terabase's novel, digital method delivers worth to these substantial solar projects and also will certainly increase solar's substitute of coal and gas generation worldwide," he included.

Powerhouse Ventures, City Light Capital and Trancoso Partners also joined the financing round.