eSolar, a producer of modular, scalable solar thermal power plants, today announced that it will supply its heliostat and sun tracking technology solutions to Sundrop Fuels, and make it available to other prospective partners and customers. This is the first commercial contract to leverage eSolar technology for use in a process heat application.
In what the company said is a "multi-million dollar deal," eSolar has agreed to supply solar collecting equipment and license for its solar concentrator technology to Sundrop Fuels, a Colorado-based company funded by venture capitalist firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and Oak Investment Partners.
eSolar has received $130 million in funding from Oak Investment, Google.org and others.
"Sundrop is the first of many companies we believe will utilize eSolar’s patent pending solar concentrating technology," said Asif Ansari, CEO of eSolar. "Solar energy will always be plentiful, but it previously has been too difficult to concentrate cheaply and make useful for process heat applications. By making eSolar’s technology available to other companies, we can drastically reduce the cost of incorporating solar power into the energy mix."
eSolar’s core technology, a modular, easily replicated solar thermal plant, concentrates sunlight directly to heat water and power a steam turbine for utility scale applications. By addressing several of the key business obstacles that have characterized larger solar installations–price, scalability, speed of deployment and grid impact–eSolar has paved the way for cost-competitive concentrated sunlight that can be used for additional industrial purposes such as cogeneration and process heat and steam production.
"Quite simply, eSolar’s modular, pre-fabricated architecture dramatically reduces the price point of harnessing solar energy," said John Stevens, CEO of Sundrop Fuels. "The market for cost-competitive and renewable energy sources is substantial. Due to eSolar’s low overall system cost, we have made a significant, multi-year commitment to integrate the eSolar operating platform into our core technology and business."
eSolar is currently in discussions with other companies to partner in additional countries and for a variety of solar applications, including process heat, photovoltaics and other related industries, the company said.
About eSolar
eSolar is an Idealab company founded by CEO Asif Ansari and Chairman Bill Gross in 2007 to develop, construct and deploy modular, scalable solar thermal power plants. eSolar’s approach marries a low-impact, pre-fabricated form factor with advanced optics and computer software engineering to meet the demands of utilities of any size for clean, renewable and cost-competitive solar energy. By focusing on the key business obstacles that have characterized large solar installations–price, scalability, speed of deployment and grid impact–eSolar has developed a proprietary solution to make a dramatic reduction in the cost of solar thermal technology.
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