MENLO PARK, Calif., May 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- QBotix, which delivers up to 20% improvements in solar PV project economics with the optimized Robotic Tracking System™ (RTS), today announced $12 million in Series B financing. E.ON and Iberdrola (Inversiones Financieras Perseo, S.L.) joined existing investors, New Enterprise Associates, Firelake Capital Management and Draper Nexus, in the funding round.
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"We are very excited to welcome E.ON and Iberdrola, as investors and strategic partners. As diversified global energy companies, their commitment to QBotix validates our strong value proposition," said Wasiq Bokhari, Founder and CEO. "Our bankable system provides up to 15% more energy than single-axis trackers and up to 45% more energy than fixed-tilt mounting systems, and it can provide an immediate reduction of up to 20% in CAPEX or levelized cost of energy for our commercial and utility-scale customers."
E.ON and Iberdrola are among the largest global energy companies with wholesale power generation utility divisions providing electricity to residential, commercial, and industrial customers across four continents. As energy leaders, they realize that as PV costs stabilize, subsidies recede, and grid-parity is achieved in markets globally, the long-term technology winners in solar are those that can deliver more energy at less cost. Additionally, electricity providers realize that the optimized dual-axis tracking with a "square" daily power profile as provided by the RTS is best suited to address the opportunities and challenges associated with grid integration of solar with smart grid and storage applications.
"E.ON has tested the QBotix RTS for over a year and has evaluated the system's ability to produce significantly more energy than fixed-tilt and single-axis tracking systems," said Urban Keussen, Senior Vice President, Technology & Innovation at E.ON SE. "E.ON is in the business of providing reliable, low cost energy to our customers across several countries, and we believe the QBotix RTS has great potential to reduce the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for commercial and utility-scale solar projects."
Today's announcement builds on the company's momentum for 2014. QBotix recently announced successfully completing its $1 million U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) SunShot Initiative award project and its first independent engineering (IE) report. Fast Company recently recognized QBotix as one of the world's top 10 most innovative companies in robotics, and QBotix announced a 45 MW supply agreement with UK-based developer Castillium.
Iberdrola Group, the largest electrical utility in Spain, and the world's largest investor in renewable energy, also joined the round. Diego Diaz, Head of Iberdrola's Corporate Venture Capital program said, "Iberdrola's venture initiative, Inversiones Financieras Perseo, S.L., is growing its investment activity in the US with a focus on partnering with start-up companies that are changing the energy business. We are very excited to work with QBotix, as we believe that the Robotic Tracking System is a revolutionary, highly efficient technology that will contribute to significantly reduce the balance of system costs in solar projects, and ultimately the levelized cost of energy in solar projects."
QBotix has installed systems in U.S. and Japan, and is actively developing additional projects in the U.S., Europe, Mexico, and Australia. QBotix will use the funds to expand the team, accelerate manufacturing ramp-up and market expansion. The company will be exhibiting at Intersolar Munich in June, Intersolar San Francisco in July, and Solar Power International in Las Vegas in October.
