Planted Solar, a platform designed to enhance the efficiency and profitability of solar energy project development, has secured $12 million in funding led by Piva Capital, with contributions from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Team Builder Ventures. This investment comes as the U.S. solar industry experiences unprecedented demand and deployment challenges.
Last year, a majority of the new power capacity added is expected to come from solar and storage; however, developers face land constraints, rising costs, and execution difficulties that can extend project timelines. Traditional solar deployment remains slow and fragmented, with developers managing numerous suppliers and manual processes.
Founded in 2020, Planted Solar aims to streamline project delivery through a fully integrated platform that includes:
1. Smarter Digital Planning – Consolidates fragmented tools into a unified workflow for optimized layouts and faster execution.
2. High-Density, Terrain-Following Hardware – Reduces land use by 50% and eliminates costly site grading.
3. Rapid Installation Tools – Employs field robotics and simplified components for quicker builds with smaller crews.
The key benefits of Planted’s system include:
– 50% less land use compared to traditional methods
– Ability to handle slopes up to 27%
– Two times faster deployment
– 70% less steel usage, reducing costs
– 30% lower cost of energy, improving returns
With this funding, Planted Solar plans to accelerate the development of its solutions, expand its deployment capacity, and forge strategic partnerships globally. The company is currently active in the U.S. and is expanding operations in the Asia-Pacific and European markets, where demand for land-efficient clean energy continues to grow.
KEY QUOTES:
“We’ve seen the headlines, but the real story is happening behind the scenes. Forward-looking developers are still moving, and we’re helping them move faster. We’re rethinking solar deployment to deliver what developers urgently need to build energy generation capacity today: less risk, better returns, and faster time to power. Piva’s deep experience with energy innovation and alignment with our vision of abundant and affordable energy make them an ideal partner as we scale to deliver the smarter approach that the solar industry needs.”
Eric Brown, CEO of Planted Solar
“Solar developers don’t have a decade to solve these problems—the crunch is happening right now. Planted Solar’s platform clears some of the industry’s biggest roadblocks by making it faster and cheaper to get projects in the ground. This is exactly the kind of pragmatic innovation the energy transition needs.”
Mark Gudiksen, Managing Partner at Piva Capital
