Solar Builder Magazine Project of the Year Awards

Solar Builder Magazine Projects of the Year

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 EagleView for sponsoring this year’s awards.

Microgrid Project of the Year

Shungnak Community Microgrid

Above the Arctic Circle, in the remote village of Shungnak, Alaska, against the backdrop of a pristine wooded landscape, residents would hear the constant sound (and smell) of a diesel-based power plant system.

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C&I Rooftop Project of the Year

University of California, Riverside

The University of California, Riverside project winning the C&I Rooftop Project of the Year is a real win for installers and engineers who encounter all sorts of complications on each project and must get creative to find solutions that meet or even exceed customer objectives.

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C&I Ground-Mount Project of the Year

Fresno County Juvenile Justice Campus

This could also be considered the power purchase agreement (PPA) of the year. Whether it is due to inflation or supply chain issues, costs are rising across the country. Energy markets are volatile, especially in California. Assessing all the variables at hand, Fresno County decided it was time to lock in some stability.

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Residential Project of the Year

Navajo Hard Rock Chapter House

Zoomed out, the 2022 Residential Solar Project of the Year, a 18-kW solar array and 36-kWh energy storage system installed at the Navajo Hard Rock Chapter House, is just one dot of progress on a backdrop of historic, widespread disenfranchisement. When you zoom in on that dot though, you’ll see some very real impacts.

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Utility-scale Project of the Year

Mililani Solar I plant | O‘ahu, Hawai‘i

The stakes were high for the Mililani Solar I plant: O‘ahu is the most populous Hawaiian island, urgently needed an infusion of clean energy to replace power provided by a 180-MW coal plant (the last such plant on the island), which Hawaiian Electric was decommissioning in September.

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Community Project of the Year

Extra Space Storage, Neptune, N.J

Solar Landscape won the Project of the Year award for Community Solar last year as well, and that’s no fluke. Solar Landscape itself is a pre-eminent community solar installer, but some of those props are due in part to its state.

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Editor's Choice

Six more standout PV projects

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.

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