FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, April 2, 2025 at 10:30 am ET
Contact: Allison Lenthall, [email protected], +1-202-322-8285
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, April 1, 2025 — Nevados won two top honors in this year’s Environment+Energy Leader Project Awards for reshaping how utility-scale solar is built.
The company’s TRACE™ All Terrain Tracker earned the victory in this year’s categories for Energy Innovation and Environmental Impact, for projects that used TRACE.
Both awards recognize the company’s role in solving one of the solar industry’s most persistent challenges: how to build cost-effective, environmentally responsible projects on sloped or uneven land, and do it faster than other leading trackers at the same time.
“Our technology opens up sites that would have been too expensive, too slow, or too environmentally risky to build just a few years ago,” said Yezin Taha, founder and CEO of Nevados. “This recognition validates what we hear every day from developers — TRACE helps them move faster and cut costs while reducing their footprint.”
Nevados’ solar tracker eliminates the need for grading — the costly, time-consuming process of flattening land before installing solar panels. Instead of forcing rows of long, straight steel tubes across a leveled surface, the TRACE™ system uses articulating joints that follow the land’s natural contours. It also includes pre-assembled components and torque tubes that auto-align during installation, allowing crews to work faster with less labor.
An independent study by Eclipse-M found that TRACE™ reduced labor hours per megawatt by up to 50% compared to conventional systems. On some projects, developers saved more than $700,000 per 100 megawatts by avoiding earthmoving.
Caption: TRACE™ All Terrain Tracker adapts to natural slopes, eliminating grading and preserving vegetation.
For example, the Nevados technology was deployed on the award-winning Bartonsville Energy Facility in northern Virginia — a 170-megawatt project developed by D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments and built by MYR Group. The system’s flexible design allowed construction without disturbing the site’s sloped terrain, avoiding the need to move more than 400,000 cubic yards of soil — equivalent to 123 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
That approach helped the project comply with stricter stormwater permitting rules in Virginia, avoid delays, and cut costs. Because the steel pilings can all be driven to the same height, rather than staggered as is common when using trackers that don’t fit the landscape, it also required 23% less steel than a typical graded project — bringing total savings on avoided grading and steel to approximately $5 million.
The Governor’s Environmental Excellence Awards, an annual program run by Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality in partnership with the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, recognized the Bartonsville Energy Facility in 2024 as a gold medal winner in the Environmental and Sustainable Project category.
Caption: At the Bartonsville Energy Facility, crews install TRACE™ on sloped terrain — without moving a single cubic yard of soil.
“As solar development expands into more challenging sites, developers face increasing pressure to reduce environmental impact and permitting risk,” said Jenya Meydbray, Chief Commercial Officer at Nevados. “TRACE gives them a tool to avoid grading, preserve natural permeability, and streamline construction.”
The Environment+Energy Leader Awards program honors products and projects that advance energy performance and environmental stewardship. This year’s winners were chosen by an independent panel of executives from more than 20 organizations, including Hyundai Motor Group, JLL, TRC Companies, and UCLA. Full results are available at www.eeleaderawards.com.
About Nevados
Nevados is the only solar tracker company that enables the rapid development of PV power plants on challenging terrain economically and without environmental compromise. Nevados offers innovative all-terrain solar trackers paired with comprehensive software in an integrated platform that optimizes solar performance, improves plant reliability, and respects the natural landscape. Headquartered in Oakland, California and backed by institutional capital, Nevados is transforming utility-scale PV deployment with its market-leading tracking solutions and partnership approach. The company’s mission is to pioneer sustainable solar solutions to preserve the earth for today and for tomorrow. For more information, visit www.nevados.solar
About Environment+Energy Leader
Since 2006, Environment+Energy Leader’s website and newsletters have provided the definitive and objective voice in reporting on business-related energy, environmental, and sustainability issues. Visit: www.environmentenergyleader.com.
About the E+E Leader Product & Project Awards
For over a decade, the E+E Leader Product & Project Awards have recognized excellence in products, services, and corporate initiatives that drive energy and environmental improvements. Entries are evaluated using a rigorous five-point rating system by an independent panel of executive-level judges from leading organizations across various industries. To see this year’s winners and learn more about our judges, visit eeleaderawards.com.
