Planted Solar, a US solar startup, replaces manual labor with robots to install densely packed solar panels, significantly reducing overall system costs by 50%. Planted Solar can also handle uneven terrain, achieving at least double the power generation efficiency of traditional solar panels. The company has garnered significant industry attention and has even received investment from Microsoft founder Bill Gates' Climate Foundation, aiming to accelerate its expansion into the solar photovoltaic market.
Robots triple installation efficiency and save space and materials.
Unlike conventional solar panels, which require spacing to facilitate installation and maintenance, Planted Solar's photovoltaic arrays are tightly packed, allowing them to adjust their mountings to adapt to the terrain even on uneven land. According to their website, the company's solar modules can withstand slopes of up to 27%, helping to reduce land development costs and minimize environmental impact.
Planted Solar CEO Eric Brown told Bloomberg that traditional solar plants require five acres of land to produce 1MW, but his company only needs two acres. Combined with the savings in construction materials, time, and land, the total system cost is nearly halved. With the addition of automated robotic construction and assembly, efficiency is tripled.
Founded in 2020, Planted Solar has already garnered considerable recognition. Last year (2023), it received a $1.6 million (approximately NT$51.75 million) competition award from the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) and secured $20 million (approximately NT$640 million) in Series A funding from Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Foundation and Kholsa Ventures.
Carmichael Roberts, a senior member of the Breakthrough Energy Foundation's investment committee, said the company's clever combination of software and robotics, coupled with a more streamlined hardware design, has the potential to revolutionize the solar industry in terms of development and construction.
Solar energy will dominate the future electricity market, and Planted Solar is expected to expand its projects.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) believes that solar energy will dominate the global electricity market for decades to come and currently accounts for three-quarters of total renewable energy production capacity. BloombergNEF estimates that solar power generation will grow by 25% in 2024, with new installed capacity exceeding 500GW. Therefore, how to generate the most electricity in a limited space may become the key to future development.
Brown revealed that the company's biggest challenge at present is to turn the pilot project into actual results. Therefore, on the 18th, it announced that it would cooperate with Cultivate Power, a distributed solar energy and energy storage developer, to launch an 11MW solar energy project in Chicago, USA, hoping to expand from the United States to other markets.
This article is reprinted with permission from RECCESSARY. The original title is "Photovoltaic Installation Robots Go Online! How Does Bill Gates' Solar Startup Double Efficiency and Production?" by Lin Boyu. This article is not licensed under the CC license.
References：
*Planted Solar（2024/6/18），Planted Solar and Cultivate Power Announce 11 MW Community Solar Development in Chicago Metro Area to Deliver 2X the Energy per Acre over Conventional Solar Plants
*Bloomberg（2024/6/18），Robots and Specialized Software Open New Solar Farm Development Opportunities
*PV Magazine（2024/6/19），U.S. startup claims doubled energy per acre with terrain-following solar array
Sources: Environmental Information Center
