Built Robotics
Assembly Line
Robots Are Fueling the Next Wave of Solar Farm Development
For Oakland, California-based Planted Solar, robotics and AI-assisted design offer a way forward. The latter allows customers to streamline solar array creation, cutting the number of components needed for construction, says Chief Executive Officer Eric Brown. Once a project’s digital blueprint is ready, Planted Solar sends construction commands to robots that work around the clock in the field.
The result, according to Brown, is about a two-thirds reduction in construction time. He says it typically takes a year to manually build a 100-megawatt solar project, which can generate enough electricity to power about 20,000 American homes. By contrast, Planted Solar expects to complete the same task within four months. (For now, the company has only deployed its technology on small pilot projects, with its first megawatt-scale one scheduled to begin next year.)
Tech investors are increasingly interested in automating the energy transition. Planted Solar raised $20 million in Series A funding from Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Khosla Ventures. Built Robotics, another startup based in San Francisco that develops robots to prepare the ground for solar panel installation, has raised $114 million in venture money and counts Founders Fund and Tiger Global among its backers.
And not every construction job can be automated — at least not for now. Built’s robots, for example, have yet to master the task of picking up larger steel beams. And when it comes to installing them on rocky ground, the robots also have to rely on their human coworkers to help drill holes.