Commercial Solar Engineering, Procurement, and Construction

93Energy designs, permits, and builds behind-the-meter solar for commercial property owners, with one contract covering every stage of the project.

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What a Commercial Solar EPC Contractor Does

93Energy

A commercial solar project is a construction project with a power system inside it. 93Energy is an EPC contractor, which means engineering, procurement, and construction sit under one contract, with project development alongside them. We model the array against your interval data, engineer it, order the equipment, carry every permit, build it, and stay through commissioning and permission to operate.

Behind-the-meter describes most of this work. The system sits on your roof, your carport, or your ground, and the power it generates enters your building before it reaches the utility. You own the plant. We have built for commercial owners across the Midwest from our Evanston base since December 2018.

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Why Commercial Property Owners Add Solar?

The case is different for a manufacturer than for a school district, but five things come up in nearly every conversation.

Generation on Site
Every kilowatt-hour your array produces is one you do not purchase. Offsetting a share of your load with on-site generation gives you a portion of your energy budget that answers to equipment you own rather than to a rate schedule you receive.

Federal and State Incentive Value
Commercial solar may qualify for federal credit value, Illinois Shines, solar renewable energy credits, and depreciation treatment. Eligibility turns on applicable requirements, so we model your project against the rules in force when construction begins.

An Asset You Hold
A behind-the-meter system is capital equipment on your books, not a service you subscribe to. It gets engineered, permitted, inspected, and commissioned like any other building system, and it stays yours afterward.

Storage and EV Charging in the Same Build
Battery energy storage and EV charger installation can be engineered into the original design or added later. Load shedding, demand reduction, and utility rate analysis all change what the right system looks like for your site.

Numbers Your Finance Team Can Check
Energy modeling and financial modeling arrive with the proposal rather than after it. Your finance team receives production figures, incentive assumptions, and a schedule. 93Energy does not replace your tax advisor.

Commercial Solar Financing Options

How It Works

Our EPC Process

One company owns the project from the first structural review through permission to operate.

1

Site Assessment and Energy Modeling

We start with twelve months of interval data, the usable roof and land area, and the electrical service feeding the building. Energy modeling establishes what the site can generate against what you consume. Financial modeling turns that into figures your finance team can verify rather than accept. This is also where we determine whether roof mount, ground mount, or carport suits the site.

2

Engineering and Design

Our engineers develop structural, electrical, and layout drawings for your specific building, including snow and wind load calculations, attachment detailing, and protection design. Rooftop mechanical equipment, service clearances, and access routes get resolved here, because usable array area is almost always smaller than the building footprint suggests.

3

Permitting, AHJ Review, and Interconnection Applications

The design gets confirmed before anything is filed. A permit application and a utility interconnection application both have to state the correct system size and number of arrays, so filing against an unfinished design produces amendments. Once the design is settled, we prepare and carry every submission: state-level requirements, your authority having jurisdiction, or AHJ, and the utility interconnection application through approval.

4

Construction and Commissioning

Our construction leadership runs the build, sources and coordinates labor, manages labor compliance, coordinates inspections, and commissions the system under load. Crane positions, roof access, and electrical cutovers get mapped against your operating schedule during pre-construction, so the disruptive moments happen when you have planned for them.

5

Ongoing Operations & Maintenance

You take ownership of a monitored, producing asset with a full turnover package and permission to operate. O&M is available afterward, covering software monitoring, annual inspections, and thermal imaging to confirm the array performs the way the model said it would.

About 93Energy Operations and Maintenance

Look To The Future

The Industries We Serve

Big roofs and high electrical usage are the common thread, and past that, every sector changes the build. Our portfolio includes a 527KW heavy manufacturing installation, a 695KW education project, a 500KW hospital carport, and a 260KW public works build. You can see the full range at https://93energy.com/commercial-solar/industries.

Make The Sun Work For You

At 93Energy, we know there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all energy solution. We design systems that align with your property, energy usage, and operational needs. We proudly serve:

Manufacturing and Factories: Process equipment draws heavily through the working day, which is the load shape that makes on-site generation worth the capital. We design around shift schedules, safety protocols, and roof load limits.
Warehousing and Distribution: Distribution buildings offer wide, largely unobstructed roof area, which keeps array layout straightforward and roof penetrations few.
Schools and Districts: Districts manage energy across many buildings on a fixed budget and a summer construction window, and organizations that pay no federal income tax reach incentive value by a different route than a taxable owner does.
Municipal and Public Sector: Public bodies work under procurement rules and published budgets. We prepare documentation that survives a public bidding process and a board review.

Why Owners Choose 93Energy

Illinois Shines Approved Vendor. Registered on the state's official Approved Vendor list as a distributed generation installer and project developer.
One contract, one point of accountability. Engineering, procurement, construction, and development sit under our roof, which removes the handoffs where commercial projects usually stall.
All permitting and interconnection carried by us. State-level requirements, the local authority having jurisdiction, and utility interconnection coordination are ours to move, not yours.
Projects of this scale on the board. Our completed work includes installations at 527KW, 695KW, 500KW, and 260KW, alongside larger industrial, retail, and community solar projects.

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solar panels on an office building in Illinois

Solar, Storage, and What Comes With It

Solar EPC is one of five service lines, and most projects touch more than one. Battery energy storage supports load shedding, demand reduction, and frequency regulation. EV charger installation prepares a property for fleet and tenant demand that keeps growing.

Battery Energy Storage Systems EV Charger Installation

Frequently Asked Questions

EPC covers engineering, procurement, and construction. When those three sit with separate firms, the gaps between them become yours to manage, and a structural question can wait on a design firm while equipment sits on a dock. One contract puts the whole sequence with one accountable party.
The design, without exception. We confirm array layout and system size before any application gets filed, because permit and interconnection submissions have to carry the correct capacity and number of arrays. Filing early produces amendments, and amendments produce delay.
The system connects on your side of the utility meter, so the electricity it generates serves your building directly instead of being sold onto the grid. Functionally, you own a power plant on your own property.
We do. Interconnection application, coordination with the utility, and follow-through to permission to operate are part of the contract. Your team stays on operations while we move the paperwork.
Often, when the original design anticipates it. Conduit runs, inverter capacity, and electrical service headroom are the constraints, which is why we ask about growth plans during assessment rather than after commissioning.

Get an Estimate for Your Facility

Send us twelve months of utility data and a roof or site plan, and we will come back with what your property can generate, what the incentives are worth under current rules, and a schedule that accounts for your jurisdiction and your utility. The estimate carries no commitment and no obligation. We build for commercial owners in Chicago, Naperville, Schaumburg, Joliet, Aurora, and Skokie, and across the Midwest on the same terms.

Commercial Solar in Ilinois

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Changing the world one sunny day at a time.