SOLAR BUILDER | AURORA SOLAR

PROJECT OF THE YEAR AWARDS

Our annual Project of the Year Awards are a celebration of the solar industry. The hard work of construction teams and installers, the creativity of engineers, the leadership of developers and the dedication of so many local businesses, government agencies and nonprofits are all on display. The Project of the Year Awards are also a reminder of what more can be done. How a supportive policy or forward-thinking corporation can make all the difference not just for the distributed generation of electricity but for bringing about social justice and building a new local workforce.
The Project of the Year Awards are also … awards! We select a field of nominees from a pile of submissions. Our reader base of solar industry pros vote for the projects that impress them the most, and then we celebrate them in the pages you’re about to read. Congrats to all of this year’s winners and thanks to everyone who nominated a project, voted and/or shared it on social media. And thanks to Aurora Solar for sponsoring this year’s awards.

2024 PROJECTS OF THE YEAR

Under 100 kW

Adventure Science Center

Adventure Science Center in Nashville, Tennessee, partnered with Everybody Solar to install a 72.32 kW rooftop solar array. In addition to reducing the museum's electricity bills by approximately $10,956 annually, the project also provides hands-on education and community impact.

101 kW to 1 MW

Camino Real Mobile Estates

Property owner Sansome Skyline Development tapped developer and EPC Solar Gain to install a 419 kW ground-mount solar system for the Camino Real Mobile Estates in Lathrop, California. Mobile homes don’t have enough rooftop space to make the economics of solar work, so the only feasible option was using a narrow but steep retention basin located next to the park.

1 MW to 10 MW

Cincinnati Zoo Solar Carport

The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden completed a 2.8 MW solar parking canopy in August 2024. This was the zoo's third solar system, having installed its first solar system in 2006 with a ground-mount system and then its second in 2011 with a solar carport. Overall, the zoo now has about 4.5 MW of solar capacity on its property.

Over 10 MW

Escalante Solar

Escalante Solar was built by Gridworks across 1,714 acres on the site of the former 253 MW coal-fired Escalante Station in Prewitt, New Mexico, which was retired in 2020, as Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association continues to pursue its landmark Responsible Energy Plan.

EDITOR'S CHOICE

Editor’s Choice Award winners were nominated for Project of the Year Awards, didn’t gain the most reader votes, but caught our collective editorial eye — for reasons ranging from impressive installation work and use of public sites to utility and grid-scale innovations that could be harbingers of big change down the road.