Accelerating Solar Projects for San Diego Schools

by | May 25, 2026

Accelerating Solar Projects for San Diego Schools
MA Engineers is San Diego’s largest local mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) consulting firm, with roots tracing back to GEM Engineering founded in 1987. For over 20 years, the company has delivered complete MEP engineering solutions for facilities throughout Southern California, serving diverse sectors including higher education, life sciences, corporate headquarters, libraries, stadiums, and high-rise buildings.

With a 70-person team that includes 15 PE Accredited Professionals—encompassing every engineer and the majority of support staff—MA Engineers is renowned for delivering innovative, sustainable, energy-efficient design solutions. Their expansion into solar engineering has yielded award-winning results, including a prestigious solar portfolio covering 30+ San Diego schools.

At a Glance

Location:San Diego, CA
Founded: 1987 (as GEM)
Employees:70+
LEED Pros:11 accredited
Market:Southern California
Specialties: MEP, Solar, LEED
Platform: 99% Revit-based

Challenge: MA Engineers won a prestigious solar design project but faced a race against time to complete 30+ San Diego school installations before losing their favorable NEM 2.0 regulatory status.

Solution: PVCAD delivered speed without compromising quality. The all-in-one solution resulted in 80% time savings and met the regulatory deadline.

Speeding up our process was the main benefit of PVCAD. We had to finish a large batch of projects to save their NEM 2.0 rate tariff with the utlity.
Shahab Salehi

PE, Principal

The Challenge

When MA Engineers won a prestigious project for solar implementation across 30+ San Diego schools, they faced a critical challenge: completing the large batch of projects in time to preserve NEM 2.0 tariff status.

After two years of evaluating solar design software, Principal Shahab Salehi, PE—a licensed electrical engineer with over 15 years of experience and expertise in large-scale multifamily, mixed-use, and higher education projects—still hadn’t found a solution meeting the firm’s professional standards. The team needed software that could dramatically accelerate their solar engineering process without compromising quality, handle both layouts and electrical design comprehensively, and work as a standalone solution—all while meeting a time-sensitive regulatory deadline.

The PVCAD Solution

After their exhaustive search, MA Engineers selected PVCAD (now part of Enact’s platform). As Shahab described it, PVCAD is “great software” that helped them save critical engineering time. The firm uses PVCAD primarily for solar layouts, single-line diagrams, and doesn’t need any other solar design software alongside it—a crucial advantage for a firm operating on a 99% Revit-based workflow. PVCAD provides energy production estimates to coincide with the PV layouts as a client benefit.
  • Solar LayoutsRapid design for educational facilities.
  • Single-Line DiagramsComplete electrical engineering.
  • All-in-One PlatformNo additional software required.
  • Sustainable Design FocusAligns with LEED expertise.

Results & Impact

PVCAD delivered exactly what San Diego’s largest MEP firm needed: speed without compromise. The software enabled MA Engineers to successfully complete their large portfolio of school solar projects within the critical NEM 2.0 deadline, protecting the economic viability of these award-winning installations while maintaining their reputation for innovative, sustainable design solutions.
  • 50+ Schools Award-winning solar portfolio delivered on time.
  • 80% Time Savings Accelerated engineering for deadline compliance.
  • NEM 2.0 Deadline Met Preserved favourable economics for all schools.
  • All-in-One Solution No additional solar software required.

About PVCAD by Enact Solar

PVCAD, now part of Enact Solar’s end-to-end AI-enabled platform, is the industry-leading AutoCAD-based solar engineering software. From detailed layouts to single-line diagrams, PVCAD reduces engineering time by over 80% while maintaining permit-ready precision. Enact Solar acquired PVComplete in January 2026 to create the industry’s first complete solar software platform.
Learn more at enact.solar | pvcomplete.com