Case studies
How Zimmermann achieved 80% faster design processes with PVcase Ground Mount
June 2, 2025
How New Leaf Energy cut dev time by 50% with PVcase for AutoCAD
Learn how PVcase platform enabled New Leaf Energy to reduce solar project development time by 50% — and more.
Customer
New Leaf Energy
Location
USA
Industry
Renewable energy
Employees
200+
Key results
20min
from site selection to design
2x
reduction in design optimization time
50%
faster project development
The Customer
Learn more about New Leaf Energy
New Leaf Energy is one of the leading developers of renewable energy and energy storage projects in the United States—both distributed generation and utility scale. Headquartered in Lowell, MA, with employees and projects spanning the country, New Leaf Energy was formed in 2022 out of Borrego’s market-leading solar and energy storage development business, which extends back to 1980. New Leaf Energy uses PVcase Prospect, PVcase Ground Mount and PVcase Yield to streamline their operations.
“We were spending too much time on drafting and not enough on decision-making. We needed a smarter, faster way to develop our projects.”
Phil Hofmeyer
Design Engineering Manager
Challenges
Manual tools, bottlenecks, and team coordination issues
Companies often find themselves at a crossroads between innovation and operational challenges. New Leaf Energy, a pioneer in solar project development across the US, found itself in this position when expanding its projects from modest 5MW sites to sprawling 450 MW installations. As an EPC developer and consulting firm, the company grappled with labor-intensive site selection, slow design iterations, and the daunting task of yield optimization.
Design time constraints
The company had to reduce the time spent on manual designs and data transfer between tools, which hindered efficiency and communication.
Fragmented processes
Difficulties maintaining consistency across the various design and development stages, leading to inefficiencies and project delays.
Data silos
Lack of integrated data and communication across software and teams impeded project performance and escalated costs.
Slow design iterations
The demand for automation and integration grew as manual data entry slowed design iterations, preventing the company from rapidly exploring and optimizing project scenarios.
Limited design precision
Early-stage designs lacked the details needed to instill full confidence in project viability.
Collaboration barriers
The company aimed to improve collaboration among project development teams, engineers, and landowners, addressing previous difficulties in achieving seamless teamwork.
Onboarding hurdles
The lengthy process of training new hires on new, disjointed tools demanded a more efficient onboarding strategy.
“We rely on traditional site surveys for our smaller projects under 5 MW. But we needed something faster for large utility-scale projects — 50 MW and up. PVcase Prospect changed everything.”
Phil Hofmeyer
Design Engineering Manager
The solution
From site selection to yield: A 3-step PVcase workflow
The solution came with PVcase — an end-to-end solar project development platform, proven to extend AutoCAD’s capabilities with automation and precision. PVcase Ground Mount, integrated with PVcase Prospect and PVcase Yield, has transformed New Leaf Energy’s workflow into a seamless, Autodesk-centric process. The result: 50% faster development.
Step 1: Site selection with PVcase Prospect
With PVcase Prospect, New Leaf Energy was able to import terrain data in seconds — instead of manually pulling topographic maps.
New Leaf Energy conducts detailed site surveys with 1-foot contour intervals for projects under 5 MW. Now, larger utility-scale projects exceeding 50 MW use topography data from PVcase Prospect or PVcase Ground Mount's Terrain feature.
Terrain is a key initial site screening factor, enabling the company to quickly establish the correct presets. This streamlines the project configuration approach in PVcase Ground Mount’s CAD environment, simplifying the design process, while PVcase Prospect enables fast grid connection, efficient landowner communication, and seamless environmental integration.
The result: projects completed 50% faster, frequent and convenient yield estimations, seamless 20-second switches from site selection to design, and fewer surprises down the road.
Step 2: Design with PVcase Ground Mount
After a site successfully passes the initial screening, whether through a site survey or PVcase Prospect, New Leaf Energy seamlessly integrates the terrain and GIS data into PVcase Ground Mount, an extensive AutoCAD plug-in, within just 20 seconds. The company then kickstarts the design process with PVcase Ground Mount, which has proven to be a true game-changer.
Module and frame presets
Previously, choosing modules and racking configurations was a slow, manual process. Now, the Anza database allows the company to predefine PVcase Ground Mount settings files based on wind/snow loads, pricing, and market availability.
Standardized presets enable instant, error-free module configuration for every engineer, saving countless hours of manual input.
Terrain Mesh
Once the company has obtained topographical data from PVcase Prospect or a site survey, it leverages the Terrain Mesh function. This feature is a significant time-saver, allowing the team to import data, create a terrain mesh, and build a slope table tailored to a specific racking vendor. It also ensures compliance with civil constraints across various site conditions. According to Phil Hofmeyer, the Terrain Mesh works seamlessly for early site screening without the need for detailed grading and pile settings adjustments.
Capacity Iteration
Throughout their extensive experience in constructing comprehensive and large-scale solar projects, New Leaf Energy has faced a variety of unexpected challenges. One notable instance was when a landowner revealed that certain sections of a site were under a conservation easement. But the team didn’t panic. They imported the new boundary lines into PVcase Ground Mount, automatically explored five layout scenarios, and found a solution in minutes — ensuring project viability without penalizing the landowner for each crossing of these diversion areas.
Furthermore, the team used Capacity Iteration to quickly estimate the PV area. They determined a 7.5MWp DC system was feasible but needed to choose between fixed-tilt and single-axis tracker systems. This decision was crucial due to its impact on total production and yield, requiring consideration of landowner preferences, local regulations (like height restrictions), and civil engineering concerns.
This iterative design process allowed New Leaf Energy’s project evaluation team to reassess site viability, especially after discovering additional constraints. The ability to quickly iterate layout, ground mount design, and yield calculations fed into the valuation model, confirming the site's financial viability.
Phil Hofmeyer, Design Engineering Manager, noted that integrating PVcase's Capacity Iteration and yield export features dramatically reduced optimization time from two weeks to less than a day, enabling efficient optimization of early-stage designs and streamlining the entire process.
Client experience
“The Capacity Iteration feature in PVcase has been a game-changer for us. It drastically reduces drafting time by allowing us to test different scenarios and find viable design alternatives quickly. The feature eases the frustration of reworking designs and allows us to focus on optimizing our projects efficiently.”
Phil Hofmeyer
Design Engineering Manager
Step 3: Energy yield calculations with PVcase Yield
Once the design was finalized, the moment of truth came — energy yield calculations. Before PVcase, this process took two weeks and required exporting files between multiple platforms. Now, New Leaf Energy smoothly integrates the data from PVcase Ground Mount into PVcase Yield and performs several yield calculations in less than a day. Workflow highlights:
Seamless integration
Data flows directly from PVcase Ground Mount to PVcase Yield, eliminating manual exports and potential errors. This streamlined workflow significantly reduces project development time, saving days, even weeks, on individual designs.
Concurrent scenario exploration
The team can run 4-5 different yield models simultaneously while working on layouts, allowing for rapid comparison and optimization of different layouts, module types, and inverters.
Data-driven decisions
PVcase Yield provides instant access to critical data, empowering New Leaf Energy to make informed decisions based on concrete insights rather than guesswork. This access to data-driven insights increases the optionality of final designs.
Investor-ready outputs
The ability to quickly generate 8760 production files and investor-ready reports rationalizes the project evaluation process and strengthens New Leaf Energy's proposals.
Results
Faster, smarter, more efficient: PVcase in action
New Leaf Energy noticed excellent results. 50% faster design time, more accuracy in designs, and a direct flow of precise data — from site selection to construction-ready outputs.
50% faster project development
Site selection, design, and yield modeling now take days instead of weeks.
Fewer errors, higher accuracy
Standardized presets mean no more manual mistakes in module selection, layout configurations, or energy modeling.
Improved real-time collaboration
Engineers, project developers, and landowners can review and refine designs together while developing several iterations — even on a call with the landowner.
Project viability assessment
With real-time yield modeling, the company can assess multiple scenarios in a single afternoon and identify whether the project is still financially viable.
Improved team efficiency
Onboarding time has been cut in half, meaning new hires can contribute to projects almost immediately.
Seamless AutoCAD integration
The company employed PVcase Ground Mount to extend AutoCAD’s capabilities with automation and precision.
Ready to experience the new way of working?
Turn complexity into clarity and confidently move your solar project forward with PVcase solutions.