2021 was a remarkable year. And while we may be fashionably late in announcing our 2021 project awards, we are thankful for those who submitted entries of their APsystems projects. While it’s certainly true that a degree of the anticipation we felt as 2021 progressed was due to the feeling that we might’ve seen the worst of the health crisis, the year was also galvanizing because of the new spirit of optimism in the fight against climate change, most aptly represented by our new administration’s aggressive approach to finding solutions to the problem. For many, 2021 felt like it could be a turning point.

For APsystems leadership and staff at work, 2021 was also important because technological advances in our chosen field have been substantial (think building-integrated solar), because sales were brisk due to adoption of microinverter tech, and because remarkable designs from our clients were more the rule than the exception. To highlight the work of our clients, we held our annual project awards contest, and we received a huge number of entries.

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While every one of the entries we received for the 2021 project awards contest was worthy, and the decision-making was not easy, we eventually decided that Ontario solar specialist Kajk Constructors should be honored with our residential project design award for their Lakes Park Project, and that Indiana firm A.G. Technologies should take home our commercial award for their El Paso project on behalf of Beck’s Superior Hybrids. We congratulate Kajk Constructors and A.G. Technologies for their ongoing work in the field, and their imaginative and important work using APsystems microinverters. And we thank all the companies who chose to enter the running for the 2021 APsystems Project Awards.

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We would also like to thank all of our customers who made a difference in advancing the cause for solar power in 2021, and advocating for this financially and ecologically rewarding alternative energy source as it grows in popularity and moves toward mainstream acceptance.

APsystems had many worthy commercial entries for this year’s installation awards. But we must say that the winning project’s narrative is particularly complex and exciting. The elements of it are agriculture, North American-built panels, installer-designed proprietary and newly-patented components, and a substantial contingent of APsystems’ YC1000 inverters…all joined under the aegis of solar power.

The firm that took on the project, A.G. Technologies, is a beacon in the Illinois solar industry. Its guiding spirit, Jim Straeter, is familiar enough with the ecological and financial benefits of ‘following the sun’ to adopt it as a secular gospel. And its company sensibility is entirely in-house, with no subcontracting of project elements.

A.G. Technologies’ incorporation of micro-inverter units in their installations, and their use of North American-made panels, makes them both a premium installer and a profoundly meaningful influence in the field. The company that contracted the array, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, was familiar with A.G. Technologies before work began; the company already had three large systems up and running courtesy of A.G. when the El Paso site work launched. Like other forward-thinking companies, Beck’s is fully on board with the substantial economic and environmental rewards of using solar power for commercial operations.

The YC1000 inverters were tailor made for the A.G. Technologies El Paso project. Due to the unusually stout power capabilities of the unit, the A.G. team was able to conduct the installation without the use of transformers and connect directly to the grid; quoting Straeter, “Microinverters in general make designing a project easy and the per-panel reporting makes post-install maintenance much less costly, and improves up-time of the project.” Additionally, the YC1000’s 480v design keeps wire size costs manageable, resulting in considerable savings.

In the end, the Beck’s Superior Hybrids El Paso location employed 30 arrays with 26 Hanwha Q Cell 430w Duo panels, each array using 9 APsystems YC1000 inverters. And a special shout-out to A.G. and their proprietary designs, which were used to facilitate the project and improve performance: the patented Solarcam™ stand that supports each panel, and the side-mount trencher that makes installation safer, faster and cheaper.

We give three cheers to A.G. Technologies and Jim Straeter for their generosity of spirit, their gift for invention in creating the right tool, their advocacy for solar power as a direct competitor of utility-based power, and their remarkable innovation.

Learn more about other 2021 project winners here.