Burbank alternative energy startup eSolar has landed its first significant revenue generator with a big project in Australia. The company has completed construction on a solar array Down Under that will power a greenhouse project for growing tomatoes using desalinated water. The project near Port Augusta in South Australia, undertaken with sustainable agriculture firm Sundrop Farms, represents the first significant commercial project using eSolar’s solar collector system technology. ESolar Chief Executive John Van Scoter said its completion opens doors to working on future projects with Sundrop in Australia, Europe and even Southern California, where the agribusiness wants to establish a presence. Energy companies in the Middle East have also expressed interest in eSolar’s technology, he added. “The old saying goes that success begets success and once you have a fully commercial released project at this scale, others feel comfortable utilizing your technology in other applications,” Van Scoter said. The privately held eSolar was founded in 2007 as one of a number of tech startups funded through business incubator Idealab in Pasadena. Other investors include Google.org, NRG Energy Inc., Stanford University and Oak Investment Partners. In 2009, the company started the Sierra SunTower thermal solar power plant, a 5-megawatt demonstration site in Lancaster. The plant is off line but is used for research and development and as a test site for making operational improvements, Van Scoter said. The company also has a demonstration site in India. For Sundrop, eSolar handled site preparation and construction of 25,000 heliostats, or solar mirrors. It also provided the software to make the mirrors track the sun and direct the light to a receiver atop a 328-foot-tall tower being constructed by Aalborg CSP A/S of Denmark. The sunlight heats up water passing through a receiver turning it to steam, which is then used to provide electricity to the greenhouses, the pumps drawing seawater from about 2.5 miles away and the desalination process. Extra heat is used to warm the greenhouses to maintain the optimal growing temperature for the tomatoes. “It’s an elegant use of the entire energy envelope that we collect,” Van Scoter said. “There is virtually no energy that is wasted.” ESolar installed the fifth generation of its solar collection system for Sundrop. The 25,000 mirrors used in the Australian project are arranged in a half-circle around the tower. That was done because of its location at a high latitude in the Southern Hemisphere, where the sunlight comes from a low angle. “Unlike at Sierra in Lancaster where we have 360 degrees, in this plant all the solar mirrors are on one side of the receiver and not a complete surround,” Van Scoter explained. – Mark R. Madler