BC: AUTONOMOUS SOLAR PANELS
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Solar EnergyCompany: Wasiq Bokhari, founder and CEO of Menlo Park, Calif.-based Qbotix, has created
a robotic system to improve energy collection at solar farms. With $12.5 million in backing, the company
has 30 employees and a customer network in the U.S. and Japan.
Robot: Qbotix's easy-to-install robots, which came to market in September 2012, are smart, rugged and
autonomous, and can work in middle-of-nowhere solar farms for decades, under extreme temperatures
and high winds. Small robots are installed along a monorail track to control about 1,200 small solar panels
(enough to power 30 homes), rotating each toward the sun once every 40 minutes. The devices also have
sensors that collect data and track dust buildup that may affect operations, allowing ample time for a fix.
Impact: The company says the system generates up to 40 percent more energy than standard solar units
and reduces electricity costs by up to 20 percent. "There's no question that everyone will use these robots
once people understand what it can do. We put a step function in the graph of the solar industry road
map," Bokhari says, noting the global solar energy industry's annual growth rate of 10 to 15 percent. The
nonprofit Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association earlier this year stated that the industry is worth
$100 billion. |
