Arcadia marks milestone, managing 2 GW community solar capacity

(DC-Based Arcadia Power is connecting customers across the nation with renewable energy. In some cases like this 3.3-MW solar facility in RI, customers were directly responsible for its construction.)

Arcadia, a clean energy software and data analytics firm, has announced it now manages 2 GW of community solar capacity, with more than 223,000 subscribers across 15 states.

Approximately 22% percent of Arcadia’s community solar subscribers qualify as low-to-moderate-income households, the company said. In 2022, Arcadia announced it had surpassed 1 GW of community solar capacity under management, an industry first and milestone for the startup founded in 2014.

As respective solar farms generate clean energy, Arcadia aims to ensure that enrolled customers automatically receive solar credits on their power bills for annual savings. 

Kiran Bhatraju, founder and CEO of Arcadia, joined Episode 38 of the Factor This! podcast to discuss the role of data in upending the energy industry’s long-held power dynamics. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In his appearance on the Factor This! podcast, Kiran Bhatraju, founder and CEO of Arcadia, discussed the data the company can collect through its software, and how data will be “foundational” for deploying DER at scale. Arcadia’s software platform, Arc, uses data from utilities, but 90% of the data the company accesses today is through customer accounts with their permission.

Fundamentally, Bhatraju said he believes that distribution utilities should focus on distributing power, not generating it, and take on a “coordinator” role to manage DERs.