There are many ways products can aid installation and deployment in the commercial, community and utility-scale solar markets, whether it’s cabling adapted for tight installation spaces or design software that quickly maps complicated projects. For the 2025 Top Products, our judges assessed products on their originality, market promise and benefits to installers and developers. These are the highest performing products, as averaged by the scoring completed by our judges. Congratulations to the Large-Scale Best in Show winners!
Also be sure to see our Honorable Mention awards in the large-scale market here.
EPC Power – M System
The flexible M System inverter from EPC Power has received a Best-in-Show award within the large-scale category of the 2025 Top Products competition.
Inverters have long prioritized certain architectures, form factors or performance requirements while sacrificing performance in other areas. The solar industry is divided on its preference for string or central inverters, noting the tradeoff between the plant-level optimization and maintenance benefits of a string inverter and the robustness and scalability of a central inverter. Alternatively, the energy storage industry has struggled to find the balance between the energy benefits offered by a string inverter and the performance features of a central inverter. And finally, the data center industry has long utilized inverters as part of a UPS but has not captured the grid-side benefits that a grid-interactive inverter can provide. With the M System, EPC solves all these problems without compromise.
The modular M System can be configured into a single 5.37-MVA inverter block or 10 independent 537-kVA inverters. The M System provides the ease of repair, scalability and multiple MPPT channels that string inverters provide but can perform as a centralized unit. The American-made inverters also demonstrate high performance in data center setups, mitigating the effects of rapid load changes and harmonic distortions inherent in AI computing, ensuring maximum uptime.
EPC first installed M Systems at two BESS sites and one PV facility, collecting data over several months to ensure the systems were meeting performance needs and expectations prior to a full-scale deployment. Since then, 3 GW of M Systems have been sold for delivery in 2025 and early 2026. The M System is already helping customers achieve domestic content goals, reduce battery size (through string optimization), improve uptime and mitigate power quality issues caused by data centers.
Affordable Wire Management – Strata Stack
The non-residential judges have awarded a Best-in-Show signifier to the Strata Stack cable management solution from Affordable Wire Management (AWM).
Strata Stack is a cable management solution engineered specifically for battery energy storage systems (BESS). The above-ground wire management product securely organizes cables to prevent overheating, ensure proper airflow and maintain consistent spacing in an ampacity-optimized configuration. This reduces circuit count and lowers material and labor costs. Strata features a single-bolt, fault-rated cleat within an innovative clamp system, designed to last the lifetime of any BESS.
Strata Stack was designed for the Fluence Smartstack BESS to address inefficiencies with cable trays. Traditionally, custom cable trays do not line up properly with the actual BESS installation. EPC crews are forced to cut and modify the trays to make them fit. Strata Stack eliminates the need for traditional cable trays altogether with its field-adjustable and flexible design using cable cleats. These clamp-like products decrease steel costs by allowing up to 4.5 ft of spacing between each cable cleat. This lessens the amount of trenching on a project, sometimes completely eliminating the need.
Although developed for Fluence’s BESS, the Strata cable management solution can be adapted to other large-scale energy storage systems, providing a field-adjustable system that will decrease labor hours and improve installation timelines worldwide.
The Strata Stack form AWM is a flexible and effective cable management system that responds to industry needs and eliminates the need for costly field work and custom cable trays. Designed for spacing larger conductors safely and efficiently, the Strata Stack is very flexible and can easily adapt to many different configurations. It is a simple but well-thought-out product that will ensure problem-free cable management in a wide variety of applications.Ben Jones, judge
PVFARM
The popular PVFARM design platform has received a Best-in-Show award in the software category of the 2025 Top Products contest.
PVFARM delivers prospecting-tool speed with engineering-grade detail, enabling utility-scale solar teams to design faster while maintaining accuracy. The platform unifies layout, civil and electrical engineering in a single workspace, which helps teams avoid late-stage surprises and improve project bankability by ensuring every design iteration reflects buildable reality. Since launching in January 2024, PVFARM has become the “Swiss Army knife” for solar design, allowing solar engineers to rapidly ensure project economics and bankability.
A key insight for PVFARM came from recognizing why EPCs discard prospecting outputs entirely: They know that adding real construction details — pile spacing, motor gaps, actual tracker lengths — will cascade through and change the entire layout. The original design never accounted for these requirements, so there’s nothing to build on. PVFARM flips this to include construction details from the start, delivered at prospecting speed.
The platform uncovers the hidden interdependencies that cause project failures, where pushing down costs in one discipline causes them to pop up in another. Choosing rigid trackers to save costs forces flat grading that dramatically increases earthwork volumes. Moving BOS equipment positions to reduce cable lengths forces different wire sequences that impact the entire harness configuration. PVFARM exposes these trade-offs immediately, enabling teams to optimize the entire project rather than discovering conflicts late in design or during construction.
PVFarm stood out because it empowers teams to design smarter, move faster and build with confidence. By exposing interdependencies early, it can enable cleaner layouts and more cost-effective electrical balance of system solutions. Troy Renken, judge
Rapid Footings Group – Pile fixtures
A relatively unknown product from Rapid Footings Group has been awarded a large-scale Best-in-Show distinction in the 2025 Top Products contest.
Pile embedment depth is determined by structural engineers who evaluate racking requirements and site geotechnical conditions. During installation, some piles encounter impediments and fail to reach specified embedment depths (called refusals or rejections) or otherwise fail to generate design requirements for axial and lateral capacity due to soil conditions. Concrete collars are often used to stabilize such piles, but concrete is slow to form and pour, and requires many days to fully cure. At the end of project life, concrete removal is arduous and environmentally unsound.
Rapid Footings Group first unveiled its pile fixtures to the solar industry in 2022. They are small, quick to install with minimal equipment and fully recyclable at the end of project life. The steel flange and web-mount fixtures bolt to piles in the ground to add capacity to driven and partially driven piles. The fixtures can also be used to lift and stabilize sinking piles in existing solar operations, common in soft soils.
Rapid Footings Group’s pile fixtures have already helped lift and stabilize piles on commissioned projects in a top EPC’s portfolio. The web-mount fixtures allowed for stabilization of piles in less than an hour. The fixtures are a quick and inexpensive solution for pile sink and stability problems.
The pile fixtures product from Rapid Footings Group seems to provide a low-cost, fast installation method to stabilize troublesome piles without the use of concrete. I can see this simple, small and recyclable solution making a large difference in current and future solar PV installations.Emily Hwang, judge
Fluke Corp – PVA-1500 Series PV Analyzer, I-V Curve Tracer
Judges have high praise for Fluke’s latest I-V curve tracer, awarding it the final Best-in-Show recognition in the 2025 Top Products contest.
The Fluke PVA-1500 is designed to help asset owners and solar technicians meet the growing demand for reliable, efficient solar energy production. As asset owners face mounting pressure to maximize uptime and ensure the long-term health of their solar assets, the PVA-1500 provides the speed, precision and user-friendliness needed to address these challenges head-on.
Unlike older versions of the tool, the PVA-1500 can deliver uninterrupted measurements even in hot environments, ensuring consistent performance. Fluke says it is the only I-V curve tester capable of accurately measuring I-V curves for 1,500-V high-efficiency solar panels without overheating, a critical advancement for today’s large-scale systems.
Its advanced built-in PV model allows for instant performance validation, while a sweep-to-sweep delay of just nine seconds enables measurement of 3.5 MW in under an hour. Wireless connectivity streamlines setup, enhances safety and provides greater freedom of movement during troubleshooting. The system also automates data management, analysis and reporting, making the entire process faster and more efficient. The PVA-1500 builds on Fluke’s September 2023 acquisition of Solmetric and its PV Analyzer, but now benefits from Fluke’s legacy of rugged engineering, advanced technology and global support.
The PVA-1500 IV Curve Tracer from Fluke is a well-designed productivity tool that ensures PV system performance data is captured quickly and accurately — even in high temperatures. As an asset owner, it is essential to capture real-time performance, present data in a meaningful way and identify precise problem areas quickly to maximize performance. Responding to market needs, Fluke has integrated several user-friendly features into this excellent tool.Ben Jones, judge