Greenbacker Capital Management has invested in Noria Energy, a California–based solar developer, to help the company scale its platform and expand its solar project pipeline. This marks Greenbacker’s foray into the floating solar space, also known as floatovoltaics.
Noria’s pipeline includes both ground-mounted arrays and solar installations that float atop bodies of water.
Floating solar projects do not require valuable land area and actually reduce algae growth and slow evaporation for the bodies of water they are installed upon. Floatovoltaic panels also experience a cooling effect from the water beneath, leading to greater and more efficient clean-energy generation.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated that installing floating solar on the more than 24,000 man-made reservoirs in the United States could meet about 10 percent of the country’s annual electricity needs.
Noria, which has operations in both the United
