The merge stands to be the largest pure-play community solar acquisition in the U.S.
Perch Energy and Arcadia’s community solar subsidiary announced plans to merge to create a new company with more than 1,000 solar projects under its management.
The merge stands to be the largest pure-play community solar acquisition in the U.S. and will operate as a standalone company focused on scaling community solar adoption.
The new company’s name has yet to be determined, Perch Energy told pv magazine USA. Once merged, the company will manage more than 1,000 solar projects across 16 states, for a combined 3 GW of solar capacity.
The new company, which Arcadia will be the majority owner of, will be led by Perch Energy’s president and CEO, Bruce Stewart, while Kiran Bhatraju will continue to serve as CEO of Arcadia. Both Stewart and Bhatraju will sit on the new company’s board of directors.
“Our venture within community solar is unique,” Stewart told pv magazine USA. “Combined, we’re a long-term partner for solar developers with a deep pocket of commercial and residential customers.”
“There is no other energy product on the market like community solar,” Stewart said. “It brings valuable energy savings to all customers, cost effective renewable generation that can be efficiently and quickly deployed to the grid — and importantly,” he added, “delivers on America’s need for scalable and reliable power to meet our growing demand for electricity from electrification, EVs and AI data centers, to name a few.”
(Read: From flipping burgers to flipping the switch on community solar)
The new company will serve 90 developers with more than 300,000 residential-customer equivalents with proprietary software technology and automation. The venture will continue to deliver utility bill savings for consumers and businesses, as the two companies have already saved an estimated $90 million combined for customers, Perch Energy said.
Arcadia’s B2B software platform, which offers utility data integrations, AI-powered analytics and energy-management solutions, will continue to be offered through the new company. Founded in 2014, Arcadia currently has more than 200,000 homes and 2,500 organizations connected to solar facilities. Last year, the company announced it had become the first community solar provider to reach 2 GW of solar energy under management.
Boston-based Perch Energy spun out of BlueWave Solar in 2021. The company provides acquisition and management services for community solar projects owned by developers and asset owners. Perch has provided services for solar projects that, according to the company, have generated over 2,300 GWh of power across Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Maine, Maryland, and Minnesota.
Perch Energy became a Certified B Corporation (“B Corp”) last year. A B Corp is a for-profit corporation that is certified for meeting a high standard of verified performance, accountability and transparency on certain factors, such as its supply chain practices, input materials, employee benefits and charitable giving.
