Remember eSolar, the solar thermal startup incubated by Idealab, and backed by Google.org, GE, and others? It’s still here and trying to raise a $30 million round, of which it’s close almost half.
In the past two years, a large electricity generator has emerged to be key booster of solar energy in the United States. NRG Energy is continuing its acquisition spree with an announcement Tuesday that it plans to buy a 250-megawatt project by SunPower.
Morgan Solar has settled on a production plan and is ready to offer its first system that use concentrated sunlight and solar cells to produce electricity in 2011. Now Morgan Solar is counting on its new CEO to deliver a new round of funding.
Google’s clean power ambitions are ramping up. The company has hired Philip Gleckman, former chief scientist at solar thermal startup eSolar, to work on solar tech internally for Google.
Clicker is bringing new aspects to its video search and discovery engine, with the launch of new social tools that will allow its users to check in and rate their favorite programs, make recommendations to other users and find out what their friends are watching.
Asif Ansari, the founding CEO of eSolar, left the solar thermal startup about a year ago to pursue a project he couldn’t get out of his head: how to bring solar thermal to the developing world.
Now that solar rooftop panel maker Solyndra has ditched its IPO dreams are there other solar folks in line? According to Next Up! Research solar thermal startup eSolar, with an estimated valuation of close to $700 million, could be next on deck for an IPO.
Idealab founder and CEO Bill Gross tells us that his solar thermal company eSolar can deploy its mirrors for “half the cost” of other solar thermal developers and the Chinese government is looking to deploy its solar tech in hybrid form in conjunction with burning biomass.
Several events in the solar industry in recent weeks have made clear just how valuable executives with semiconductor chops are to the solar biz, as they can bring decades of knowledge of low-cost chip manufacturing, as well as experience working with suppliers of silicon itself.