Vote: Project of the Year 2025 | Under 100 kW
Here are the Under 100 kW nominees for the 2025 Solar Builder Project of the Year awards.
The form is at the bottom of the page. You are allowed to vote once per day from now until Friday, Oct. 10 at midnight (ET). (FYI: Our voting widget will let you vote more than once a day, but we filter these out in the back-end. Sorry, ballot stuffers.) Winners will be announced and prominently featured in the Q4 issue of Solar Builder magazine and online in December.
Thanks to Aurora Solar for sponsoring the 2025 Project of the Year Awards.
Be sure to vote in every category!
Casa PerlArte Energy Resilience Hub
Puerto Rico | 5 kW PV + 13 kWh BESS
Operated by the Old San Juan Heritage Foundation, Casa PerlArte is a community-led cultural and educational center located in historic La Perla, Puerto Rico — a historically disadvantaged neighborhood in San Juan, and the last Afro-Indigenous community in San Juan. In the wake of Hurricane Maria and similar storms, Casa PerlArte became an impromptu shelter for residents, ensuring that area residents can access mutual aid and meals. These services are critical, but the structure was not originally designed to offer them.
The Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) is utilizing funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and working with partners at the University of Puerto Rico ― Mayaguez and community leaders to install localized solar + storage systems in some of Puerto Rico’s most vulnerable areas, ensuring that people have access to electricity after hurricanes or other disruptions of the electric grid. The Energy Resilience Hub in La Perla was completed on Aug. 8. With the addition of a solar + storage system, Casa PerlArte will be better prepared to support residents when the next storm, blackout, or other need arises. The system is already demonstrating its value for community resilience. When a massive blackout left thousands of people in Puerto Rico without electricity Aug. 17-19, the system served as an electric power oasis for the community — just over a week after the installation was completed.
Developer: Interstate Renewable Energy Council and the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez | EPC/Installer: Planta Solar | Modules: JA Solar | Inverters: Sol-Ark | Storage: Pytes | Mounting/Racking: Unirac
Jackson Solar Garden
Jefferson, Georgia | 45.26 kW
At Jackson Electric Membership Corp.’s (EMC) headquarters in Jefferson, Georgia, the solar garden is more than just a renewable energy project, it’s a showcase of innovation and community impact. The electricity generated by a solar canopy and Smart Flowers that feed directly into Jackson EMC’s Cooperative Solar program, which allows members to get the benefits of solar power without having to install panels on their own property. Ultimately, what makes this project stand out is its blend of function and storytelling. The space combines eye-catching solar flowers that track the sun with the first Quest Renewables FAST Park canopy ever built. The FAST Park canopy is designed so most of the assembly happens at ground level, which meant less disruption to the busy campus and a smoother build overall. This project shows how renewables can be smart, accessible, and community focused, all wrapped into one beautiful solar garden.
EPC/Installer: Radiance Solar | Modules: Qcells | Inverters: CPS America | Mounting/Racking: Quest Renewables, Smart Flower
Mingus Pointe Apartments
Cottonwood, Ariz. | 99 kW
Mingus Pointe demonstrates how renewable energy can be integrated seamlessly into community living and delivers financial relief, and long-term resilience. A key challenge designing a PV array for Mingus Pointe is each apartment is individually metered, and Arizona regulations required a separate interconnection for each meter. This meant that even though the project is located at one site, it effectively became 36 separate 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 execution demanded close collaboration with APS and the City of Cottonwood. Fire setbacks, roof loading, conduit pathways, and interconnection logistics were addressed through detailed planning, field verification, and creative problem-solving. Every challenge was met with a solution—whether it was adjusting conduit runs for accessibility, fine-tuning inverter placement, or reconfiguring tie-ins to balance loads safely.
Monitoring so many small systems could have been cost-prohibitive. Solar Gain’s solution was to install 108 Wi-Fi-enabled Northern Electric Power (NEP) microinverters, which allow each unit to be monitored individually without the need for expensive gateways.
EPC/Installer: Solar Gain | Modules: Talesun | Inverters: Northern Electric Power | Mounting/Racking: Sunstack
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 powers operations for the buffalo management program, including a new storage building, that supports the shepherding of approximately 300 buffalo on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation.
The Freedom Forever team — which had never built an off-grid system to this point — designed a robust microgrid system that replaced diesel generator dependency for the buffalo sorting chute while providing scalable power infrastructure for future operations. The PV and battery system was precisely sized based on comprehensive load projections, ensuring both current needs and expansion capacity. Beyond powering the processing chute, the newly conditioned shed eliminates the need to trailer equipment to the remote site daily, including four-wheelers used to herd the buffalo.
Three of the installers on this project were Northern Cheyenne tribal members who are now full-time traveling employees with Freedom Forever, hired as a result of training provided during previous Department of Energy projects on the reservation. This created meaningful career opportunities while building local technical expertise. The project also directly supports cultural restoration efforts, as healthy buffalo populations restore grassland ecosystems and strengthens the sacred connection between the Cheyenne people and buffalo.
Developer/EPC/Installer: Freedom Forever | Modules: Jinko Solar | Inverters: Jinko Solar | Storage: Jinko Solar | Mounting/Racking: Nuance Energy Osprey Racking
