September 30, 2025
Here are the nominees of less than 100 kW for the 2025 Solar builder Project of the Year Awards.
The form is at the bottom of the page. From now on until Friday, October 10 at midnight (et) you can vote once a day. (For your information: our voting widget shall Let you vote more than once a day, but we filter it in the back-end. Sorry, ballot papers.) Winners will be announced and prominently present in the Q4 number by Solar builder Magazine and online in December.
Thanks Aurora Solar For sponsoring the 2025 Project of the Year Awards.
Make sure you vote in every category!
Casa Perlarte Energy Resilience Hub
Puerto Rico | 5 kW PV + 13 kWh Bess
Casa Perlarte is managed by the Old San Juan Heritage Foundation and is a cultural and educational center led by the community in the historic La Perla, Puerto Rico-a historically disadvantaged neighborhood in San Juan and the latter Afro-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-in-Indian community in San Juan. In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and similar storms, Casa Perlarte became a spontaneous hiding place for residents, so that residents of the area have access to mutual help and meals. These services are crucial, but the structure was not originally designed to offer them.
The Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) uses financing from the US Department of Energy and works together with partners at the University of Puerto Rico -Mayaguez and community leaders to install localized solar energy storage systems in some of the most vulnerable areas of Puerto Rico, and ensures that Puerto Rico Rico, and other Puerto Rico, ensures Puerto Rico, and ensures Puerto Rico, and the Puerto Rico Tuerto, and Puerto, Grid. The Energie -Veerkracht hub in La Perla was completed on August 8. With the addition of a Solar + storage system, Casa Perlarte will be better prepared to support residents when the next storm, black -out or other needs arise. The system shows all its value for the resilience of the community. When a huge blackout left thousands of people in Puerto Rico without electricity from 17-19 August, the system served as an oasis of electrical current for the community-bike more than a week after the installation was completed.
Developer: Interstate Renewable Energy Council and the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez | EPC/Installer: Planta Solar | Modules: JA SOLAR | Inverters: SOL-ARK | Storage: Pytes | Assembly/Rekken: Unirac
Jackson Solar Garden
Jefferson, Georgia | 45.26 KW
At the head office of Jackson Electric Membership Corp. (EMC) In Jefferson, Georgia, the Solar Garden is more than just a project for renewable energy, it is a showcase of innovation and community effects. The electricity that is generated by a sunscreen combination and smart flowers that feed directly in Jackson EMC’s cooperative solar program, with which members can get the benefits of solar energy without installing panels on their own terrain. Ultimately, this project makes the mix of function and stories striking. The space combines striking sunflowers that follow the sun with the first quest renewable energy sources Fast Park Luifel ever built. The Fast Park canopy is designed so that the majority of the mounting is done on the ground floor, which meant less disruption for the busy campus and a smoother build in general. This project shows how renewable energy sources can be smart, accessible and community -oriented, all packaged in one beautiful sun garden.
EPC/Installer: Radiance Solar | Modules: Qcells | Inverters: CPS America | Assembly/Rekken: Quest Renewables” Smart flower
Mingus Pointe Apartments
Cottonwood, Ariz. | 99 KW
Mingus Pointe shows how renewable energy can be seamlessly integrated into the lives of the community and provides financial exemption and provides resilience in the long term. An important challenge to design a PV array for Mingus Pointe is that each apartment is measured individually, and Arizona regulations required a separate interconnection for each meter. This meant that although the project is on one site, it effectively became 36 individual solar systems.
The installation itself required precision and ingenuity. With four buildings, 36 interconnection points and dozens of tenant meters to coordinate, the design and implementation demanded close collaboration with APS and the city of Cottonwood. Fire setbacks, roof loads, pipe routes and interconnection logistics were tackled by detailed planning, field verification and creative problem solving. Every challenge was taken with a solution or now the adjustment of the pipe runs was for accessibility, refining the placement of the inverter or the re-configuring of tie-ins to safely balance the loads.
The monitoring of so many small systems could have been cost reduction. The solution of Solar Gain was the installation of 108 Wi-Fi-enabled Northern Electric Power (fake) micro-formers, so that each unit can be checked separately without expensive ports.
EPC/Installer: Sun gain | Modules: Talesun | Inverters: Northern electrical current | Assembly/Rekken: Tanning set
Northern Cheyenne Buffalo Facility
Ashland, Montana | 36 KW
The Northern Cheyenne Buffalo project connects renewable energy with cultural restoration and economic empowerment. This fully off-grid Solar + storage system feeds operations for the Buffalo Management program, including a new storage building, which supports the repetition of approximately 300 buffalo on the reservation of Northern Cheyenne.
The Freedom Forever-Team-Team that had never built an off-grid system so far, a robust microgrid system that replaces the dependence on the diesel generator for the buffalo sorting chute and at the same time offers scalable electricity infrastructure for future operations. The PV and Battery system was accurately the size based on extensive charging projections, which guarantees both current needs and the expansion capacity. In addition to feeding the processing coupling, the newly conditioned barn eliminates the need for trailer equipment to the remote site daily, including four -wheelers used to hate the buffalo.
Three of the installers of this project were Northern Cheyenne Tribal members who are now full-time traveling employees with freedom forever, hired as a result of training that was provided during the previous Department of Energy projects on the reservation. This created meaningful career opportunities during the construction of local technical expertise. The project also supports direct cultural restoration -efforts, because healthy buffalo populations restore grassland eco -systems and reinforces the holy connection between the Cheyenne people and Buffalo.
Developer/EPC/Installer: Freedom forever | Modules: Jinko Solar | Inverters: Jinko Solar | Storage: Jinko Solar | Assembly/Rekken: Nuance Energy Osprey Racking
Tags: Commercial and Industrial, Community Solar, Poy, Project of the Year, Project of the Year Awards
