A Massachusetts-based solar energy firm is merging with the community solar arm of a Colorado-headquartered renewable energy group to create one of the country’s largest pure-play community solar companies.

Perch Energy, based in Boston, and Arcadia—located in the Denver suburb of Greenwood Village—on March 11 said they are joining to manage more than 3 GW of solar power capacity developed by more than 90 groups across 16 states. The companies on Tuesday said the new venture will create a major community solar acquisition and management servicing platform. The company will focus “on scaling community solar adoption with strong financial backing,” with a governing board that includes investors in both Arcadia and Perch.

Bruce Stewart, president and CEO of Perch, will also serve as chief executive officer of the new venture. Stewart, who also will sit on the new company’s board, told POWER, “Community solar is unique. We can bring clean energy onto the grid quickly and directly deploy valuable energy savings to a broad range of commercial and residential customers. We’re excited that the combination of Perch and Arcadia’s community solar businesses will expand our technology, platform and services capabilities further under this new venture.”

Kiran Bhatraju, Arcadia’s founder and CEO, also will be a board member of the new company, which will be majority-owned by Arcadia. Both Arcadia and Perch were early leaders in the community solar sector, with decades of experience in energy. The companies are known for working with solar power developers to serve a range of commercial, residential, and low-to-moderate income customers.

The companies on Tuesday said 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 groups said 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 Stewart.  “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 U.S.”

“We’re thrilled to join forces with Perch and continue delivering millions of bill savings for residential and commercial customers,” said Bhatraju, founder and CEO of Arcadia. “Bruce and team share our values and belief in community solar as the best energy product in the market, and as an essential tool in the coming years to create resilient distribution grids.”

Arcadia is continuing to expand its operations as an energy solutions platform. The company’s business-to-business software platform serves enterprise customers globally, providing utility data integrations, artificial intelligence-powered analytics, and comprehensive energy management solutions. The companies said that 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.”

—Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.