ECA Solar's secret to faster, more accurate community solar pipelines

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How ECA Solar saved time and enhanced accuracy in community solar development with Solesca

ECA Solar, a leading community solar developer faced challenges with slow and often inaccurate early-stage project assessments. By adopting Solesca, they streamlined their workflow, significantly reducing design time while enhancing accuracy across their high-volume pipeline of C&I rooftop and ground-mounted projects.

Increase in Accuracy

Saved per year

Deviation from PVsyst estimates

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About ECA Solar

Founded 11 years ago, ECA Solar began as a C&I rooftop solar development and EPC company in the New England region. Over time, it evolved into a community solar development firm, expanding across six states. Their mission is clear: to benefit the community, economy, and environment by developing clean energy projects that meet the growing demand for electrification and decarbonization.

With a 1.3GW pipeline of clean energy assets, ECA Solar is committed to enabling more businesses and communities to benefit from renewable energy.

Complex Comercial Roof Solar + Ground Mount

The Challenge: Lack of Accuracy & Efficiency in Early-Stage Designs

1. Inconsistent Early-Stage Designs Impacting Accuracy

Before using Solesca, ECA Solar’s C&I and ground-mounted community solar project designs varied significantly between the sales and engineering teams. With the previous software, sales representatives would estimate system sizes and production, only for engineers to later discover discrepancies – sometimes as much as 15% to 50% off the actual feasibility. This disconnect led to rework, delays, and inefficiencies, emphasizing the need for a new tool that ensured consistent and accurate project assessments.

"We used to have cases where sales estimated a 5MW system, but engineering later determined it was only 3MW. Those kinds of mistakes cost time and money."

– Caleb Letourneau, Director of Engineering

2. Slow and Inefficient Feasibility Assessments

With their high-volume solar development strategy, manually evaluating hundreds of solar sites per year became a bottleneck. Preliminary feasibility assessments could take up to 1.5 hours per project, creating inefficiencies and limiting the number of projects they could confidently assess. A streamlined solution was necessary to enhance efficiency and scale operations.

"Our [Engineering] team simply didn’t have the bandwidth to manually vet every potential solar project. We needed a tool that could provide reliable, preliminary results in a fraction of the time."

Why ECA Solar Chose Solesca

ECA Solar was one of the earliest adopters of Solesca, and the decision to switch was driven by three key factors:

Unmatched Accuracy: Solesca’s engineering templates and advanced modeling ensured early-stage project assessments were precise, reducing costly redesigns later.

Improved Efficiency: The ability to quickly assess project feasibility allowed ECA to process and vet more C&I and ground-mounted community solar projects in significantly less time.

Strong Customer Collaboration: Solesca’s team implemented requested features within weeks, if not days, setting it apart from competitors.

"Solesca’s responsiveness blew us away. We provided Solesca with a list of features we needed. Most of them were implemented within weeks–if not days. I’ve never seen that level of engagement from a software provider before."

– Caleb Letourneau, Director of Engineering

The Results: Solesca’s Impact on ECA Solar’s Workflow

1. Higher Accuracy in System Sizing and Production Estimates

Solesca eliminated the wild variations in project feasibility estimates. With the design template, non-technical sales team and engineering teams now work with the same baseline inputs, reducing system size discrepancies to within 1% of final production estimates. The integration of SAM (System Advisor Model) and SolarAnywhere API for weather data further improved production accuracy.

"Before Solesca, we were constantly debating project feasibility internally. Now, the numbers are clear, and everyone is on the same page."

– Caleb Letourneau, Director of Engineering

2. Faster Project Evaluation: Saving Additional 20 Minutes Per Project

With Solesca’s automated design tools and templates, ECA Solar speeds up its early-stage feasibility process, saving 20 minutes per project compared to its previous tool. Given that they processed over 900 solar projects in 2024, this efficiency translates to 300+ hours saved annually – time that can now be reinvested into higher-value engineering tasks.

"Twenty minutes per project might not sound like a lot, but when you’re dealing with hundreds of projects, that adds up fast."

3. Seamless Collaboration Between Sales & Engineering

Solesca’s real-time collaboration features let sales and engineering teams work seamlessly on the same project, track cursors, and leave comments directly on the design. This streamlined communication and removed inefficiencies caused by licensing constraints in other software.

"It’s amazing that our sales team can send over a Solesca link, and I can tweak the layout right away without starting from scratch. It’s a true collaborative tool."

4. Advanced Layout Generation for Complex Solar Sites

Many ECA Solar projects involve irregularly shaped land parcels. Solesca’s advanced layout algorithm enables optimal space utilization while maintaining efficiency. Features like multiple frame sizes and alignment lines ensured optimal land utilization, reducing the need for early CAD involvement.

"Solesca’s alignment tools and layout automation make it significantly easier to model tricky sites – without jumping straight into CAD."

Site Spotlight: Complex Illinois Roof + Ground Mount Hybrid System

A noteworthy project ECA Solar worked on involved designing a hybrid rooftop and ground-mount system. The goal was to integrate both site conditions into a single, efficient energy system – something that traditionally required multiple tools and extensive manual adjustments.

"Before Solesca, managing a project with both rooftop and ground-mount elements was frustrating. We had to use separate software for each, and the numbers often didn’t align."

– Caleb Letourneau, Director of Engineering

Solesca allowed ECA Solar to seamlessly design both components within one platform, ensuring:

Accurate system sizing tailored to both the rooftop’s structural constraints and the ground array’s spatial efficiency.

Consistent production estimates across both systems, eliminating discrepancies caused by using multiple software tools.

Engineering templates that simplified input management for non-engineers, with dedicated templates for roof-mounted and ground-mounted designs, allowing the development team to confidently create initial layouts.

This project exemplified how Solesca not only streamlined complex solar site designs but also reduced engineering bottlenecks, allowing ECA Solar to move projects forward faster and with greater confidence.

Final Thoughts: Why ECA Solar Recommends Solesca

For developers managing high-volume C&I and ground-mounted solar projects, Solesca offers a game-changing solution. Caleb Letourneau, the Director of Engineering at ECA Solar, emphasizes:

“If you’re still using outdated tools, get a demo of Solesca. Even if you’re happy with your current workflow, you might find that Solesca is faster, more accurate, and more intuitive than what you’re using now.”

– Caleb Letourneau, Director of Engineering

By enhancing early-stage solar design with greater accuracy, speed, and seamless collaboration, Solesca empowers solar developers to focus on scaling clean energy solutions efficiently – a win for businesses, communities, and the environment.

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