A solar roof perched more than 75 metres above Colombo’s streets has earned First Energy SL (Pvt) Ltd two top honours at the Sri Lanka Clean Energy Week Leadership Awards 2026, putting a rarely seen technology on the national stage.
The company won Project of the Year: Building-Integrated Solar (BIPV) and Technology Innovation of the Year: Building-Integrated Solar (BIPV), both for the same installation at the new People’s Bank head office. The awards were presented on August 21 at Hotel Marino, Colombo, during Sri Lanka Clean Energy Week, an event organised by SolarQuarter.
The system crowns the bank’s 24-storey head office, where solar modules form a waterproof architectural roof over a terrace. First Energy says it is the first system of its kind in Sri Lanka.
What sets it apart is that the panels are the building element itself. Conventional rooftop solar is fixed onto a finished structure, but in a building-integrated system the modules replace the roofing material.
The design brief made that necessary. Architects wanted a pergola with set spacing and a particular quality of filtered light on the terrace below, and standard solar modules, made in fixed sizes with minimal light passthrough, did not fit. First Energy says it worked with specialist international manufacturers to produce modules in non-standard dimensions not carried by mainstream suppliers.
The height brought its own challenges. To withstand high-velocity wind loads, the company increased module thickness and reinforced the mounting system with additional clamps and an upgraded support structure.
The finished roof has an installed peak capacity of over 80 kilowatts (kWp). It also sheds rain and provides shade and filtered light, three functions from a single element, which the company describes as the reason both juries recognised the same project.
Building-integrated photovoltaics remain uncommon in Sri Lanka, where most commercial solar goes onto existing roofs. The approach is generally viable only at the design stage, since it earns its cost by replacing a material that would otherwise have been bought anyway.
First Energy, founded in 2016, is one of the country’s leading solar companies. It says it has delivered over 100 MW of rooftop and ground-mounted solar, with over 75% of its installed capacity coming from commercial, industrial and utility-scale projects. It offers end-to-end engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) along with long-term operations and maintenance (O&M), and is expanding into battery energy storage systems (BESS) and medium-voltage infrastructure.
The system was installed shortly before Cyclone Ditwah struck Sri Lanka in late November 2025, and is complete and operating.