Terafab is an automated digital system featuring robots that build utility-scale solar farms, and its creators claim it’s able to double installation productivity yet reduce cost.

Berkeley, California-based Terabase Energy‘s Terafab system features solar panel installation robots that can operate “24/7” on an automated assembly line on the solar farm’s site. The system uses robotic arms that lift and connect solar panels to trackers.

The system also features a digital twin (i.e., a virtual model of the solar farm’s site), logistics management systems, and an onsite wireless digital command center.

Terabase also announced the opening of a “factory to make factories” in Woodland, California, where it will manufacture Terafab systems. The Woodland facility is currently making the first gigawatt (GW) of Terafab assembly lines and has the capacity to build more than 10 GW of Terafabs per year.

The company says that using Terafab to install utility-scale solar farms results in faster construction, improved health and safety for workers, and will alleviate labor shortages in the renewables industry (yes, this is a problem). It’s also modular, so it’s scalable.

And it’s almost ready: The Terafab system is going to be commercially deployed in the third quarter of this year.

Matt Campbell, CEO and cofounder of Terabase Energy, said yesterday, “We successfully field-tested Terafab last year, building 10 megawatts of a 400 MW site in Texas. Today’s launch is the next step forward to rapid commercial scale-up.”

Terabase Energy is partnered with Tempe, Arizona-headquartered First Solar, and it’s funded by Bill Gates’ climate-focused VC firm Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

Read more: The US’s largest solar panel maker just got a huge domestic order

Images: Terabase Energy

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