PV Squared Solar Earns National Recognition for Solar Leadership

GREENFIELD — PV Squared Solar has once again earned a place on Solar Power World’s 2026 Top Solar Contractors list, recognizing the Greenfield-based, worker-owned cooperative among the nation’s leading solar companies.

This year, however, the recognition extends beyond the cooperative’s installation work. As part of the publication’s “15th Anniversary: Top Solar Contractors Across America” editorial, Solar Power World selected PV Squared for a feature illustrating that there is more to a solar company than the kilowatts it installs each year. The anniversary editorial highlights the people, challenges, relationships, and acts of resilience that make each company whole.

PV Squared’s feature centers on Rachel Levey, a worker-owner, secretary of the board of directors, and Inside Sales & Service specialist, whose journey from breast cancer diagnosis to international competitive dragon boat racing reflects the perseverance, teamwork, and humanity at the heart of the cooperative.

Last year, the International Dragon Boat Federation added a breast cancer division to the World Dragon Boat Racing Championships, marking a milestone in the history of the sport. Levey qualified for the U.S. national team and traveled to Brandenburg, Germany to compete. Her team earned silver and bronze medals in the races.

While Levey competed across the Atlantic, her co-workers gathered at PV Squared’s Greenfield office to livestream the competition and cheer her on from afar. For the cooperative, seeing Levey compete at the top of her sport, and then seeing her story receive national attention, became a shared moment of pride.

“One of the greatest joys of working in a cooperative is watching and sharing in the success of our colleagues,” said Brittany Hathaway, worker-owner and Marketing & Outreach specialist at PV Squared Solar. “Rachel is the kind of person who rarely seeks the spotlight, so watching her not only be invited to compete internationally in this milestone moment for her sport, but earn a medal, and then be recognized by Solar Power World, was incredibly meaningful for all of us. It has felt like the entire cooperative, and people from every chapter of Rachel’s life, are cheering her on together. That kind of celebration doesn’t happen because of a job title. It happens because of the person she is.”

The feature explores how Levey found her way to both competitive paddling and worker ownership following her breast cancer diagnosis, and how the community surrounding her helped carry her through each new chapter.

She said the recognition has been both humbling and meaningful. “Dragon boating and worker ownership may look very different from the outside, but both depend on people moving together with trust, commitment, and a shared purpose. I am incredibly proud to have represented the United States in Germany, and I am just as proud to be part of a cooperative where my co-workers were watching, cheering, and celebrating alongside me. To have Solar Power World share that story is an extraordinary honor.”

PV Squared’s inclusion on the 2026 Top Solar Contractors list recognizes the cooperative’s continued contribution to the growth of clean energy. Its inclusion in the anniversary editorial celebrates something less easily measured: the people and relationships that sustain that work.

Founded in 2002, PV Squared designs, installs, and maintains residential and commercial solar and battery storage systems throughout Western Mass. and Southern Vermont. As a 100% worker-owned cooperative, the company is shaped by the people who work within it, from the technical expertise invested in each project to the care colleagues extend to one another beyond the workplace.

The dual recognition reflects what PV Squared has long believed: a strong solar company is measured not only by what it builds, but by how it supports the people building it.