Vermont is known as the 'Green Mountain State', which is not accidental - the Green Mountain Range runs through its center, but the state is covered in dense forests from border to border, attracting nature enthusiasts to admire the changing leaves of trees every season. This obsession with protecting unobstructed green landscapes can sometimes pose challenges for solar installers in Vermont, especially when a town wants to achieve 100% solar coverage.

Aegis Renewable Energy Company (ranked 275th on the 2025 Top Solar Contractors list) solved this problem for the town of Colchester last year by launching four unconventional site selection projects. In 2018, Aegis collaborated with the third most populous municipality in Vermont to install a 150 kW ground installation project on a small section of the Roosevelt Expressway and another 150 kW ground installation project in a pumpkin field. In 2024, Aegis completed the project at a local cemetery and a new entertainment center in the town. The town's goal is to install 720 kilowatts of solar energy, and Aegis has achieved this goal.

They have been striving to generate 720 kilowatts of electricity because this is the electricity consumption of the town, so they want to offset this part of the electricity consumption, "said Sonia Bain, Vice President of Aegis. Every year, we strive to find new power plants to help them achieve this goal. Ultimately, the solar energy they produce this year is sufficient to meet the electricity needs of the town

Although it is easy to select sites for the two projects in 2018, finding suitable space for the final 420 kW project is not an easy task. Behn stated that Colchester lacks land that can support solar energy without causing serious shading problems or requiring deforestation. To avoid this situation, Aegis recommends installing rooftop and carport arrays at the entertainment center under construction, and installing another ground support on an unused plot of land at Fort Ethan Allen Cemetery.

We have been working hard to find an efficient venue, "Bain said. So we proposed the idea of a carport. It's a very creative way to get them to the required quantity

The entertainment center took 20 years to build and will be open to the public in February 2025. The facility features an indoor track, basketball court, gym, a 120 kW rooftop array, and a 150 kW carport spanning the parking lot.

Aaron Lavallee, the design, licensing, and project manager of Aegis, stated that the entertainment center features a butterfly style 5 ° inward sloping roof and requires a support system that can tilt 5 ° and 15 ° to ultimately tilt the array 10 °. The company has chosen Sun Ballet, an Italian concrete support company that distributes in the United States.

The Sun Ballet product is a highly competitive integrated solution for us. The bracket itself is a ballast and can also serve to ground the array, "he said. They have American distributors in New Hampshire, which greatly shortens production and transportation time, and it also meets the conditions for domestic manufacturing in the United States

For the carport, Aegis used Terrasmart's large-span canopy product and made some adjustments. The town hopes to have at least 14 feet (about 4.3 meters) of clearance below the lanes for fire trucks, other safety vehicles, and snow sweepers to pass through.

(14 feet) is our lowest starting point, reaching a maximum of 18.5 feet, "Lavalli said. We also need to cover the entire 67 foot (about 20 meters) paved area, which requires some additional engineering to achieve

On the other side of the town sits Fort Ethan Allen, a US Army outpost built in 1894 and closed in 1944. It is now home to the Vermont National Guard and various businesses. This fortress, named after Vermont founder Ethan Allen, has a small military cemetery to its southeast. Half of the land in the cemetery is idle, which is very suitable for installing a 150 kW solar ground power station.

To ensure the protection of historical relics, archaeological investigations were conducted on site. Due to the absence of any issues, Aegis completed a double-sided fixed tilt photovoltaic project along a busy four lane highway. Due to the busy traffic in the area, the town requested an aesthetic renovation. Aegis collaborated with local landscape designers and fence suppliers to block the view of the solar project. In the end, a scenic power plant was completed, adjacent to a 130 year old cemetery surrounded by the green mountain scenery promised by the state government.

Bain stated that achieving Colchester's solar energy goals is an interesting challenge, and the last two projects will connect the old and new fields.

The entertainment center is a brand new building, "she said. We have transformed an old military cemetery into a purposeful and useful place