2024 Summit Look Book

Climate tech has arrived

Check out the portfolio companies, Fellows, and Catalyst projects that will be at the Breakthrough Energy Summit, and meet the innovators who are carving the path to a clean energy future.

Planted Solar

Notifications

Attending the BE Summit?
Visit us in the Electricity room at the Innovation Showcase.

Company Description

Planted Solar simplifies and accelerates the deployment of solar photovoltaic (PV) power at scale by integrating advanced software and robotics into power plant design and construction.

This approach leverages comprehensive design tools, site planning, adaptable terrain following racking, and automated construction to reduce land competition and environmental impact — the result is 50% less land use than conventional systems and more options for developers to build the right capacity near interconnection. Planted Solar turns more sites into good sites, enabling rapid and efficient generation of carbon-free, abundant, and affordable energy.

New electricity demand now exceeds planned supply. The required timeline, cost, and carbon intensity of new, easily built capacity does not meet the world’s emerging needs. To achieve grid decarbonization and support the energy transition across various sectors — including mass electrification, battery electric vehicles, green hydrogen production, and AI — there must be a significant shift in the speed and scale of new energy generation, especially solar power deployment.

In 2023, a team of energy experts led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy, and Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology concluded that 75 terawatts of PV are required to meet 2050 decarbonization goals. Today, just over 1.5 TW of PV capacity is installed, and interconnection challenges, site availability, and a shortage of skilled labor are growing barriers to further development.

The industry has grown by building custom construction projects and conforming large land parcels to the power plant. Future site availability will be defined by distributed parcels with more topography and distance between the interconnection points. This future demands a high volume but flexible manufacturing-like efficiency to deploy solar power that conforms to the land to meet the 75 TW moment. This requires a complete overhaul in design and deployment methods, designing for faster construction, reduced risks, and optimal use of interconnection resources.

Planted Solar is at the forefront of this transformation, leveraging abundant and cost-effective solar modules, high-density racking, and field automation to eliminate unnecessary balance-of-system components and complexity. This approach helps build solar power plants on half the land in half the time with lower risks and higher returns. Planted Solar offers:

Design and Development Services: Supporting projects from origination to permit, Planted Solar provides flexible designs that evolve from concept to construction-ready plans. Once configured, the software directly communicates these plans to assembly robots for field implementation.

Automated Logistics and Installation: Planted Solar automates logistics and power plant installation, delivering faster, safer, and less labor-intensive construction with the most adaptable solar racking solution.

Planted Solar has completed three pilot projects in the U.S. and will begin megawatt-scale distributed generation projects in 2024. By 2025, the company plans to expand operations to Europe and other target markets, supporting distributed generation, utility-scale, and Power-to-X applications.

Planted’s leadership team has extensive experience in solar product design (Cogenra/Maxeon), energy project development, and manufacturing automation (SpaceX), and Planted is backed by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Khosla Ventures. Join Planted Solar in turning more sites into good sites and enabling rapid decarbonization with abundant, carbon-free energy.

Our Companies

Filter Options

Appearance
Company Description Sector Program Technology
44.01 CO2 to X Offering permanent CO2 storage solutions using the natural power of mineralization Manufacturing Ventures CO2 to X View details
75F Sensors 75F uses smart sensors and controls to make commercial buildings more healthy, efficient, and comfortable than ever before Buildings Ventures Sensors View details
Aeroseal Leak-Sealing & Insulation Shrinking carbon emissions in the built environment with air-sealing technologies for HVAC ductwork and building envelopes Buildings Ventures Leak-Sealing & Insulation View details
Aikido Technologies Renewables Aikido Technologies has designed a self-erecting platform for floating, offshore wind turbines to overcome key barriers to increasing offshore wind energy production Electricity Fellows Renewables View details
Airloom Wind Turbines Transforming wind energy through low-cost, infinitely flexible systems Electricity Ventures Wind Turbines View details
Albedo Aerial Monitoring Aerial quality imagery — from space Agriculture Ventures Aerial Monitoring View details
Alpine Bio Food & Beverage Alternatives Alpine Bio is on a mission to transform plants into the world's most regenerative ingredient factories, bringing their first protein Casein to market via tastings in 2025 Agriculture Ventures Food & Beverage Alternatives View details
Antora Energy Thermal Energy Storage Electrifying heavy industry with zero-carbon heat and power Electricity Ventures Thermal Energy Storage View details
Arculus Solutions Hydrogen Arculus Solutions is future-proofing current natural gas transmission pipelines to safely transport hydrogen Manufacturing Fellows Hydrogen View details
ArkeaBio Methane ArkeaBio™ is an ag-biotech start-up developing a vaccine solution to significantly decrease methane emissions from ruminant animals globally Agriculture Ventures Methane View details
Arnergy Storage Replacing fossil fuel generators with modularized solar +lithium ion storage systems in emerging markets Electricity Ventures Storage View details
Aspiring Materials Carbon Removal Aspiring Materials is tackling industrial CO2 emissions from two angles - what goes in and what comes out. And we’re using commonly found rocks to do it Manufacturing Fellows Carbon Removal View details
Baseload Capital Heat Power Investing in a sustainable future by developing heat power plants worldwide Electricity Ventures Heat Power View details
BIOMILQ Food & Beverage Alternatives Giving infants the opportunity to thrive through superior cultured-breastmilk nutrition Agriculture Ventures Food & Beverage Alternatives View details
Bloom Biorenewables Biochemicals Bloom Biorenewables designs a world in which our materials and fuels are made from sustainable bio-based carbon Transportation Ventures Biochemicals View details
Blue Frontier HVAC Smart, ultra-efficient sustainable air conditioning with integral energy storage Buildings Ventures HVAC View details
Blue World Technologies Methanol Making high-temperature fuel cells that enable efficient use of electro-fuels for industries around the world Transportation Ventures Methanol View details
Boston Metal Steel Game-changing technology for steel decarbonization and sustainable metals production Manufacturing Ventures Steel View details
Brimstone Energy Cement Decarbonizing ordinary portland cement Manufacturing Ventures Cement View details
C-Zero Renewable Natural Gas Decarbonizing natural gas Manufacturing Ventures Renewable Natural Gas View details
C16 Biosciences Food & Beverage Alternatives Producing sustainable alternatives to palm oil using biotechnology Agriculture Ventures Food & Beverage Alternatives View details
CarbonCure Concrete Decarbonizing concrete and reducing embodied carbon in the built environment Buildings Ventures Concrete View details
CemVision Cement CemVision AB combines three different technologies into one process to reduce carbon emissions from cement and concrete production Buildings Fellows Cement View details
Circ Textiles Recycling Threading together the future of circular fashion with revolutionary textile recycling technology Manufacturing Ventures Textiles Recycling View details