San Francisco-based PVT Solar, which builds solar panels that generate both electricity and heat, said this week that it has closed a $13.7M Series B financing round led by Sigma Partners, with Khosla Ventures and Japan’s Energy & Environment Investment joining in. Khosla led PVT Solar’s Series A round last year. The company also said that Vikas Desai, the former vice president and general manager of SunPower’s residential and light commercial business unit, has been appointed CEO. PVT Solar hopes to sell its “Echo” panels—which pull heated air through vents placed underneath the photovoltaic panels—to homeowners who want to reduce their electric bills while also powering heat exchangers that supplement their home hot-water systems.
Author: Wade Roush
Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco.
Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.)
I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia.
I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats.
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