Tuesday, March 3, 2009

eSolar Lands $30M, Inks India Deal

Pasadena-based eSolar, which is developing solar thermal power plants and technology, disclosed this morning that it has scored $30M in an investment from Indian firm ACME Group, in conjunction with a deal to construct 1 gigawatt of solar power plants in India. According to eSolar, ACME Group and the firm are in an exclusive licensing agreement, where the firms will build up to 1,000 MW of solar thermal power plants over the next 10 years in India. The $30M equity investment in eSolar comes shortly after a similar deal with NRG Energy, which eSolar announced last week, involving $10M in equity plus a deal to construct power plants in the U.S. eSolar has now raised at least $180M in funding for its solar thermal technology, including investments from Google, Oak Investment Partners, and Idealab. eSolar said that ACME will be a master licensee of its technology, and will build, own and operate solar thermal plants in India using its designs, along with working with other companies to build solar thermal power plants in India using eSolar technology.