Planted raises $31.8 million to accelerate autonomous power deployment. Jeanne Gray Oakland-based Planted is scaling its robotic fleet and preparing to launch its next-generation Sage robot as surging electricity demand puts new pressure on how quickly power generation can be deployed. Planted has raised $31.8 million to accelerate autonomous power deployment, as rising electricity demand creates growing urgency to bring new generation capacity online. Planted is developing an integrated system that combines planning software, high-density terrain-following solar arrays, energy storage and autonomous field robotics. The company's broader goal is to transform power plant construction from a largely customized, labor-intensive process into something closer to manufacturing. That shift comes as demand for new electricity generation rises sharply, driven in part by data centers and other large industrial power users. Solar photovoltaic generation added a record 664 gigawatts of new global electricity supply in 2025, according to Planted. But the company argues that meeting future electricity demand will require annual deployment measured in terawatts, not gigawatts. Planted targets the power deployment bottleneck. Building new projects can still involve long development cycles, extensive field labor, land constraints, and interconnection delays. Planted is focusing on that deployment challenge. "The way to close that gap is to turn the construction of a power plant into a manufacturing problem: building robots and deployment systems, not just projects," said Eric Brown, CEO of Planted. The company's solar system is designed to operate on parcels that traditional tracker systems may not be able to use. This includes land with slopes of up to 27%, without requiring grading. Planted says its high-density design can also deliver twice the energy per acre, allowing solar projects to occupy smaller footprints. That approach has already helped move projects forward. For Aligned Climate Capital's Armoracia project, Planted redesigned the solar installation to fit on 16 acres - 10 fewer acres than the original design required. According to the company, the denser design helped the project move through local review after the earlier configuration had been rejected. Planted has also completed Bowes Solar, an 11-megawatt Illinois project for Cultivate Power. Data center project goes from first call to power in 10 months. One of Planted's most notable recent projects is a 28-megawatt behind-the-meter power installation serving a neocloud data center. The project moved from an initial conversation to delivering power in approximately 10 months, with field construction completed in less than three months. The example highlights an increasingly important challenge for data center developers and other major electricity users: securing power on timelines that may be considerably shorter than traditional utility or grid infrastructure development schedules. Planted plans to address that market further beginning in 2027 by offering what it calls powered land - sites paired with its own clean power infrastructure and designed to support large electricity loads without adding strain on existing ratepayers. Sage robot will expand Planted's deployment capacity. The new funding will allow Planted to expand its robotic fleet while supporting the launch of Sage, its next-generation field robot. Sage is expected to enter the field in late 2026 and, according to Planted, will more than double field productivity compared with the company's existing robotic fleet. The company ultimately is targeting a 10x increase in field crew output. Planted views each robot as an additional unit of construction capacity. Instead of scaling primarily by adding more traditional field crews, the company can increase deployment capacity by manufacturing and putting additional robots into service. Demand is already testing that model. Planted says its existing robotic fleet is fully committed through 2027, while reservations for 2028 deployment capacity are already open. Planted targets 10x deployment growth in 2026. After deploying more than 10 megawatts in 2025, Planted says it is on track to deploy approximately 100 megawatts in 2026, representing a tenfold annual increase. Its project pipeline now exceeds 20 gigawatts. Planted serves solar developers, independent power producers, data center operators and other major electricity buyers working against fixed delivery timelines. As power demand continues to increase, the company is betting that one of the biggest opportunities in energy will be to create a faster, more automated way to put that generation into operation. Planted will accomplish this by combining software, robotics, solar hardware, and storage into one deployment platform. The company's goal is to make power infrastructure repeatable at a scale traditionally associated more with manufacturing than construction. Jeanne Gray. September 16, 2026

Planted raises $31.8 million to accelerate autonomous solar deployment. Tuesday, September 15, 2026 A company that specializes in autonomous power deployment said it has raised $31.8 million to scale its operations. California-based Planted said the new capital expands its robotic fleet. The company said the funding also supports the launch of Sage, its next-generation robot, as demand outpaces the company's current capacity. Planted on September 15 said the funding round was led by Piva Capital and RA Capital Management Planetary Health, with participation from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Gigascale Capital, Google, and Khosla Ventures. "Globally, solar needs to be deployed about five times faster than it is today to hit the scale experts project we'll need by 2050, and the gap is growing as the industry confronts constraints involving supply chains, land, interconnection, and skilled labor," said Eric Brown, CEO of Planted. "The way to close that gap is to turn the construction of a power plant into a manufacturing problem: building robots and deployment systems, not just projects. We have robots in the field proving the model works today. This round is how we scale it." Record solar installations. Brown's group on Tuesday said a record 664 GW of solar photovoltaic power was installed worldwide last year, but noted terawatts of new generation capacity are needed to meet projected demand. The company said it combines planning software, high-density terrain-following solar arrays, storage, and field robotics into one system, which enables Planted to build on parcels of land that legacy trackers cannot use. The company said its system also delivers twice the energy per acre, resulting in smaller project footprints and a lower profile on the landscape. Planted said its array "is simplified, designed for automation, and defined in software," and thus can deliver new power generation capacity in months rather than years. Planted's most recent build, a 28-MW behind-the-meter project serving a neocloud data center, went from first call to power in 10 months, with field construction completed in under three months. Planted on Tuesday said the company's development model "is proven and bankable," and noted its projects carry independent engineering validation and project financing. The company completed Bowes Solar, an 11-MW project in Illinois for Cultivate Power, and will next build Aligned Climate Capital's Armoracia project on 16 acres, 10 fewer than the original design required. The denser redesign moved the project through local review after the initial layout was rejected, according to the company. Planted, which deployed more than 10 MW in 2025, is on track for 100 MW in 2026, a 10x jump in a single year, with a project pipeline of more than 20 GW. The company said Sage, the next-generation robot, will be deployed later this year. Plans for rapid development. "Electricity demand is skyrocketing today, while new power generation often takes many years to come online," said Ricardo Angel, managing partner at Piva Capital. "By combining intelligent planning and project development software, high-density racking, and autonomous field robotics, Planted dramatically reduces the land, steel, and labor bottlenecks slowing projects down. The company has developed a much faster and more capital-efficient way to deliver power when industrial energy buyers like data centers need it most." "When industries go from bespoke to manufactured, they unlock orders of magnitude more scale at a fraction of the cost. Solar construction is still building custom projects, site by site," said Mike Schroepfer, founding partner at Gigascale Capital, a group founded in 2023. Gigascale backs early-stage companies, and to date has invested in more than 25 groups. "Planted's model is the engine this industry needs, and it's already proven in the field," said Schroepfer. - Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER. Tagged in: