esolar

China taps eSolar for massive power project

U.S. solar thermal power company eSolar, whose investors include Google, said it has reached a deal with a Chinese power equipment maker to build a 2,000-megawatt solar thermal power project in China over the next 10 years.

The deal comes as the Chinese government aims to boost renewable energy generating capacity in the country, with plans to generate at least 10,000MW of solar energy and 20,000MW of wind power by 2020.

In a statement, eSolar said equipment maker China Shandong Penglai Electric Power Equipment Manufacturing was developing solar thermal plants using eSolar's technology.

It did … Read more

Q&A: eSolar bets on software to make solar cheaper

Among the Internet cognoscenti, Bill Gross is best known as the head of tech incubator Idealab. Now, as the CEO of solar start-up eSolar, he's working in renewable energy, but he's still putting his digital economy chops to work.

Two-year-old eSolar is having an opening ceremony for its pilot solar power plant in Lancaster, Calif., on Wednesday. There's a veritable glut of solar start-ups, but eSolar has already gotten further than most: it's actually producing electricity at below the price consumers pay in California.

The plant is also the first concentrating solar "power tower" … Read more

eSolar plugs solar plant into California grid

eSolar is doing what so many other solar start-ups wish they were already doing: feeding electricity into the grid.

The 2-year-old concentrating solar company on Wednesday will host an event in Lancaster, Calif., to celebrate the opening of a demonstration facility that's converting the sun's desert heat into electricity.

At five megawatts--enough to supply about 1,500 homes or up to 4,000 during peak hours--it's making a modest contribution to overall electricity generation. But the Lancaster plant has been crucial to proving that eSolar's technology produces cost-effective electricity and can be replicated, said company CEO … Read more

eSolar, NRG Energy to build solar power plants

Updated at 12:05 p.m. PT with additional details from a conference call with reporters, and correction added on the shape of eSolar's mirrors.

Power plant operator NRG Energy on Monday announced a deal with start-up eSolar to build 11 solar power plants in the Southwest U.S.

The agreement will lead to 500 megawatts' worth of solar energy production at peak capacity, enough to power 400,000 homes, according to the companies. The first plant is expected to be operating in 2011. The size of a traditional natural gas or coal power plant is roughly between 500 … Read more

eSolar lands solar power plant deal

eSolar on Tuesday said that it will build solar thermal power plants that will make 245 megawatts of electricity for Southern California Edison.

The plants will be built in the Antelope Valley of Southern California and begin operating in 2011.

The company, created by Idealabs and funded by Google.org, makes utility-scale concentrating solar power systems with a modular design.

Software-controlled heliostats, or mirrors, reflect light onto a tower where the heat turns water to steam that turns a turbine.

The company raised $130 million in April.

California is a hotbed for utility-scale solar power because the state has relatively … Read more

Hot kilowatts: Infinia, Stirling Energy Systems, eSolar get money

Three solar-thermal companies have raised money in the past week in a sector that's showing life, despite a choppy investment environment.

Infinia on Tuesday said it has taken $7 million from Asian contract manufacturer Foxconn Technology Group, part of a total of $57 million in a Series B round first announced in February.

The company uses a dish to concentrate sunlight onto a Stirling engine, which makes electricity. It intends to sell its 3-kilowatt devices to small-scale utility plants.

On Monday, eSolar said it has raised $130 million from Idealab and Google.org. Its solar-thermal systems, designed for utility-scale … Read more

Report: eSolar gets $130 million

Solar power start-up eSolar has raised $130 million in funding, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

The Journal says one of eSolar's investors is Google, which announced last November that it would begin investing in alternative energy companies in an effort called RE

Pasadena, Calif.-based eSolar has plans to build large solar-thermal plants using the heliostat design, which utilizes an array of flat mirrors that direct sunlight onto a water tower, turning the water inside to steam, which then turns a turbine to make electricity.

Now, the company says, it has come up … Read more

Google in energy: Imitator or innovator?

Google announced on Tuesday plans to put hundreds of millions of dollars into alternative energy. The question now is whether the company is advancing the state of the art or just imitating everyone else who is dumping loads of money into the field.

The answer is some of both.

One of the first companies to get funding from Google will be eSolar, which will make solar thermal plants based on the heliostat design. In this concept, an array of flat mirrors gathers and directs sunlight onto a water tower. The water boils into steam, which turns a turbine to make … Read more