Joachim Maass, Founder and CEO, pitches his German startup Solar Tower Systems to investors at ECO11. Solar Tower Systems is in the very promising business of CSP (Concentrated Solar Power), has the first customers and revenues, a strong management team and currently looks for €1.5M funding. Should be an easy deal.

Initially, Solar Tower Systems focuses on optimising the heliostats, i.e. the technology of moving mirrors to reflect the sunlight to the receiver on top of the tower in the most energy efficient way. Joachim claims they can improve the performance of the heliostats by 18%, thus significantly reducing the investment cost of a CSP power plant which easily costs €500M or more depending on its size.

Solar Tower Systems could be a great technology supplier for solar power plants built by the Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII) in North Africa or other super sunny places on planet earth. US-based competitors are BrightSource and eSolar.

Tags: BrightSource, Cleantech, Cleantech Startup, Concentrated Solar Power, CSP, Desertec, DII, ECO11, Ecosummit 2011, eSolar, Heliostat, Investor Pitch, Joachim Maass, Smart Green Economy, Smart Green Startup, Solar, Solar Tower Systems, startup