Raises $130 Million from Idealab, Oak, Google to Accelerate Deployment
–Today, eSolar™, a producer of scalable solar thermal power plants, announced that it has closed $130 million in funding from Idealab, Google.org, Oak Investment Partners, and other investors for the construction and deployment of pre-fabricated power plants. Designed to address the complex issues surrounding large or utility-scale power projects, eSolar’s distributed solar thermal plants achieve economies of scale at 33 MW, and are modularly scaled to fit the needs of large and small utilities.
Google, the Internet company with a seemingly limitless source of revenue, plans to get into the business of finding limitless sources of energy.
The project, dubbed Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal, is hiring dozens of engineers and targeting investment financing at advanced solar thermal power, wind power, enhanced geothermal systems and other new technologies, Google said.
Some may think that going into areas not related to the core business is bad business… though I will enjoy watching what Google can do in an area that seems to need more help. Solar and wind generation continue to be more costly then buying from your local utility.
Google has allocated 10% of their money toward unrelated projects… this one taking up 3% which equals 500 million.
Just makes me think of Nokia and the rubber boot company they used to be.
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