Arcadia and Perch Energy have announced a new venture combining both companies’ community solar businesses to create a new standalone company, which will be the largest pure-play community solar acquisition and management servicing platform in the U.S. The new company will operate as a dedicated venture focused on scaling community solar adoption with strong financial backing and a board composed of Arcadia and Perch investors.
The new venture will be majority-owned by Arcadia. Bruce Stewart, President and CEO of Perch, will serve as the CEO of the new company and sit on the Board of Directors, while Kiran Bhatraju will continue to serve as CEO of Arcadia and also sit on the new venture’s board. Both businesses were early leaders in community solar and have decades of energy experience, delivering strong ROI for their solar developer partners and quality customer service for a diverse range of commercial, residential and low-to-moderate income (LMI) customers. Together, the new venture will manage over 3 GW of solar capacity across 1,000 solar projects in 16 states, serving over 300,000 residential customer equivalents with proprietary software technology and automation.
The joint venture will leverage the best of both companies, from Arcadia’s market-leading customer acquisition, billing and utility data software, to Perch’s historical strength serving commercial customers, Production-to-Payment reporting capabilities, and the combined teams’ management leadership and policy expertise — ensuring a smooth transition for all customers.
“We believe this venture reflects the natural evolution and maturation of the community solar business, and are excited to merge two strong teams with such dynamic and complementary services and technology, ” said Bruce Stewart, CEO of the new venture. “This venture also speaks to the clear need we’ve heard from solar project developers and asset owner partners who want a financially strong and scalable partner that can reliably serve them for decades. A partner that can support them with their growth plans and meet customer demand, as residents, businesses and governments continue to embrace community solar across the US.
Arcadia’s B2B software platform serves enterprise customers globally — providing utility data integrations, AI-powered analytics and comprehensive energy management solutions. While the new venture will operate as an independently managed entity, Arcadia’s platform business will continue to leverage the scale of this expanded community solar presence in its Energy Procurement Advisory offering.
News item from Arcadia
