Planted Solar Secures $12 Million to Export Terrain-Conforming Arrays Globally

• US start-up Planted Solar raises $12 m to commercialise robotic, slope-hugging PV mounts that use half the land and 70 % less steel.

Silicon Valley ingenuity is heading for Europe’s hillsides. Planted Solar, a California-based hardware start-up, has closed a $12 million seed-plus round that will bankroll overseas pilots of its “terrain-conforming” photovoltaic mounting system—robot-built racks that follow ground undulations like a ski trail, eliminating costly earthworks. The raise was led by Piva Capital with follow-on cash from UC Investments and early backer Third Sphere.

Founder and CEO Mia Ramirez says the kit cuts land use by 50 % and steel tonnage by 70 % compared with fixed-tilt frames, unlocking sloped or rocky sites usually dismissed as too expensive. A lightweight aluminium spine carries standard 550-W modules; computer-vision bots plant anchor screws and slide rails into place at twice the speed of manual crews, allowing a 20-MW plant to go from break-ground to grid in eight weeks.

The latest cash injection pushes Planted’s total funding to $20 million and sets the stage for its first European deployments. The company has inked memoranda with two Iberian developers and a Nordic data-centre operator to build three pilot arrays—each 5-10 MW—during 2026. Pending performance data, the partners may scale to >200 MW across uneven terrain where land flattening can add €0.04/W to capex.

Industry veterans see balance-of-system (BOS) innovation as the next cost frontier now that modules are nearing commodity status. “We’re chasing cents per watt in steel, logistics and labour,” notes WoodMac analyst Elena Barros. Terrain-adaptive solutions not only shrink material bills but also soften community push-back by hugging the ground and reducing visual impact.

Planted is hardly alone: Israeli firm Ecoppia and Australia’s 5B are testing fold-out or prefabricated racks, while European EPCs toy with drone-assisted surveying. Still, Ramirez believes her outfit’s software-plus-robotics moat stands out. “We’re less a hardware maker and more a construction-automation company,” she says, hinting at licencing deals beyond solar—from agritech to lightweight bridges.

With European land constraints tightening and permitting timelines stretching, any technology that can squeeze more megawatts onto marginal ground will find an eager audience. If the pilots deliver, hillside shepherds could soon be sharing pastures with panels planted—literally—by robots.