Prolectric, the off-grid renewable lighting and power specialist, has won edie’s Renewable Energy Project of the Year Award 2026, for its decarbonisation work on the A417 Missing Link highways scheme. The award was presented at the annual edie Energy & Tech Awards ceremony at The Brewery, London.
At the awards Prolectric demonstrated in partnership with Kier and National Highways, how renewable temporary power and lighting can outperform diesel at scale on the A417 Missing Link; a complex, environmentally sensitive highways construction project in the Cotswolds.
Commendations for Prolectric and the A417 project’s achievements, were noted by the judges, who said: “This project is groundbreaking in its approach to decarbonisation, involving multiple partners and complex operations in an environmentally sensitive location. Impressive carbon and cost reductions have been well quantified, creating an inspiring blueprint for replication in future.”
Kathryn Adams, Director of Product, at Prolectric, said:
“Winning this award is a fantastic recognition of what can be achieved when renewable technology is embedded into a major infrastructure project from the outset. Working closely with Kier and National Highways, we have shown that solar, hybrid power and battery storage can provide the reliability a complex live site demands, while cutting carbon emissions, diesel use and operating costs at scale.”
Gavin Jones, Project Director, at Kier Transportation Major Projects, added:
“Working with Prolectric, the transition was seamless, delivering significant cost savings without compromising performance. These technologies are setting a new standard for powering major infrastructure projects.”
Gloucestershire’s A417 ‘Missing Link’ is a critical three-mile, single-lane stretch between the Brockworth Bypass and Cowley Roundabout. It has long been a major bottleneck, causing congestion, diverting traffic onto unsuitable local roads and contributing to serious accidents.
The 40-hectare construction site lies within the Cotswolds National Landscape, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. To operate, it required safe, dependable temporary power and lighting while reducing emissions, noise, fuel use and disruption to communities and protected wildlife.
Prolectric, Kier and National Highways developed a solar-first strategy based on trialling, validating and scaling renewable off-grid technology. More than 80 solar lighting, Solar hybrid generators and battery storage units replaced conventional diesel generators and tower lights. Technologies were tested in live conditions and expanded across the site once their reliability had been proven.
In the last year alone, Prolectric’s solutions eliminated 833,689kg CO2e, avoided 270,574 litres of diesel and delivered £638,180 in operational cost savings. Hybrid deployments reduced fuel use by more than 75%, while one three-phase solar battery energy storage installation achieved peak daily savings of 400kg CO2e and more than £240.
Prolectric, in partnership with Kier and National Highways, are already expanding the use of the solar and battery hybrid applications, using the performance data from the A417 project to deploy lighting and power units at Kier’s A66 Project and National Highway’s Lower Thames Crossing Project.
Prolectric’s Kathryn Adams was one of the interviewees who contributed to the Highways Voices episode dedicated to the Missing Link project in April and you can listen to that HERE.
(Picture: Prolectric)
