The Department of Energy has awarded startup Brittmore Group with about $1 million in grant money.
The startup from San Jose, Calif. is looking to use robots to install large-scale solar power plants, according to Fox Business.
"We developed a system of constructing the power plants very quickly and with a very small workforce," said Bram Britcher, CEO and founder of Brittmore Group.
Robots do the heavy lifting of solar panels and can move panels to their installation locations at 10 miles per hour. Britcher says this allows the company to install power plants 20 times faster than with traditional tactics.
The Small Business Innovation Research grant is the second government grant that Brittmore has received. Britcher said the company has received almost $1.5 million from the Department of Energy, Fox Business reported.
Britcher said the company first rented a small office at a local incubator when beginning development for the robots.
"In order to control costs, we actually machined a lot of the original parts ourselves for the robot," Britcher said. "Then, we developed the first prototype, and got a functioning system that we showed to the Department of Energy."
Britcher added that he has great confidence in the future of his company and the use of solar power.
"2014 looks very good, and the next several years look very good," Britcher said. "Costs continue to go down. I think there are situations already where renewable energy is equal [in cost] with fossil fuels, and I think it's going to be pretty widespread."
Other companies around the world have started to use robots to handle their solar panels, The Washington Post reported. Arava Power began using robots from Israeli startup Ecoppia to clean its panels last month. The robots are built to run automatically, but an operator can manage them if necessary.
"You can be in San Francisco and you can easily control your solar parks in Ghana, Namibia, India and Saudi Arabia," said Eran Meller, chief executive of Ecoppia.
