Green Wombat

Last year’s California Clean Tech Open winner GreenVolts is a poster child for how a startup can capitalize on the startup contest to bootstrap itself into some major deals. Working from a San Francisco office provided by utility PG&E (PCG) as part of its contest winnings, GreenVolts earlier this year scored a contract with its benefactor to build a 2-megawatt solar power station using the solar startup’s high concentration photovoltaic technology. The company’s microdishes track the sun and focus its rays on small but highly efficient solar cells. Rotating platforms each hold 176 of the dishes.

So it was appropriate that GreenVolts CEO Bob Cart announced last night at this year’s Clean Tech Open ceremony that the company had raised $10 million in its latest round of funding. The company also said that its demonstration solar power plant for Spokane, Wash.-based utility Avista (AVA) had begun generating electricity. Avista had made an earlier investment in GreenVolts and participated in the latest round, which was led by Greenlight Energy Resources.