Yazılar

Terabase Energy Secures $130 Million to Expand Solar Technology Deployment

/in /tarafından

Terabase Energy, a company specializing in solar technology, announced on Thursday that it has raised $130 million in funding, led by SoftBank, to scale its operations and expand the deployment of its solar technology for large projects. This funding round is the largest in the company’s history, bringing its total funding to $200 million. While the company did not disclose its valuation during this round, the investment highlights strong investor confidence in its future.

Despite solar and energy storage accounting for 84% of new electricity generation capacity added to the U.S. power grid in 2024, the sector is facing challenges due to new U.S. energy policies that continue to support fossil fuels. Additionally, venture funding in the U.S. has been relatively quiet in early 2025, with a few AI-focused companies capturing most of the spotlight.

Terabase Energy’s platform collaborates with solar power plant developers, engineers, and construction firms, streamlining processes through workflow digitalization and automation. The company plans to use part of its new funding to enhance its robotics-assisted assembly line, Terafab, designed to alleviate “bottlenecks in construction speed and workforce limitations.”

In addition, Terabase operates PlantPredict, a solar modeling software, and Construct, a construction management platform. Kentaro Matsui, managing partner at SoftBank Global Advisers, highlighted that the surge in energy demand, particularly from AI data centers, underscores the need for scalable and sustainable solutions.

SoftBank, which is known for financing early-stage technology companies, also supported Terabase through its Vision Fund 2. Other existing investors in the company include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Fifth Wall, SJF Ventures, and EDP Ventures.

Corning Partners with U.S. Solar Manufacturers to Produce All-American Solar Panels

/in /tarafından

Corning, a global technology company, has announced a partnership with U.S. solar manufacturers Suniva and Heliene to produce the only solar panels made entirely from American-made components. This collaboration marks a significant step in strengthening the U.S. solar manufacturing sector, which aims to compete with China in the global market.

Georgia-based Suniva, which specializes in solar cells, and Heliene, a panel manufacturer based in Canada with production facilities in Minnesota, will combine their efforts with Corning. Corning, along with its subsidiary Hemlock Semiconductor, produces key materials for solar panels, including silicon wafers and polysilicon, in Michigan.

AB Ghosh, Corning’s vice president and general manager of solar technologies, emphasized the company’s excitement about leveraging its advanced manufacturing capabilities to enhance the quality of solar components while securing the U.S. energy supply chain.

This partnership comes as part of a broader effort to bolster U.S. solar manufacturing, driven in part by tax incentives in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which has fueled the growth of clean energy factories across the country. Despite shifts in the political landscape, clean energy companies continue to push for policies that not only address climate change but also support American energy production and job creation.

The new solar panel module will feature up to 66% domestic content, the highest of any solar panel currently on the market. This product will help solar developers qualify for a 10% domestic content tax credit on top of the 30% base credit provided by the Inflation Reduction Act.

Trina Solar Sets World Record for Solar Technology Efficiency

/in /tarafından

Trina Solar (688599.SS) has achieved a new world record for the conversion efficiency of a specific type of solar module, the company announced on Monday. In laboratory tests, Trina’s large surface area n-type fully passivated heterojunction (HJT) modules demonstrated an impressive efficiency of 25.44%. These results were certified by the Fraunhofer CalLab, a leading solar research body in Germany.

HJT technology involves passivating the surface defects of solar cells to enhance performance, and the new efficiency benchmark highlights its potential for solar energy. Cell efficiency is crucial because higher conversion rates reduce the size of solar installations and lower costs.

Professor Martin Green of the University of New South Wales, whose lab previously held the solar cell efficiency record for decades, praised the achievement, noting that HJT represents one of the leading technologies vying for dominance in the solar industry. While HJT technology is currently more costly than other methods, Green predicts that costs will decrease as the industry adopts the new technology.

Trina’s chairman and CEO, Gao Jifan, expressed the company’s commitment to advancing research and development in passivated solar technology to maintain its leadership in the field. While HJT currently represents a small portion of the market, it is projected to increase from 7% in 2024 to 9% in 2026. Meanwhile, TopCON cells are expected to dominate the market in the coming years.

The achievement not only sets a new record for HJT technology but also represents a milestone in the efficiency of single-crystalline silicon solar cell modules.