Monday, April 21, 2008

eSolar Raises $130M For Solar Power Plants

Pasadena-based eSolar said this morning that it has raised an astounding, $130M in venture funding for the construction and deployment of pre-fabricated solar power. The firm said the funding came from Idealab, Google.org, Oak Investment Partners, and others. eSolar said that the company--which develops photovoltaic technology for utility-scale solar--is looking to address large, utility-scale power projects, and will provide distributed solar thermal plants that achieve economy of scale at 33MW. The firm, which had announced a collaboration with Google's non-profit arm, Google.org in January, said its pre-fab 33MW modular designs will have minimal land requirements. Idealab's Bill Gross, who is Chairman of eSolar, said in a statement that the firm's business goal is to make solar electricity for less than the price of coal, without subsidies. The firm now has 70 employees. More information »

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