Building SolarMitra on AWS for Clean Energy Access
SolarMitra is a clean-energy and green-finance platform that simplifies rooftop solar adoption. This article shares how we deployed it using Amazon EC2, Amazon CloudFront, and AWS builder-focused learning.
A student exploring cloud and backend systems to make an optimized solution
Building SolarMitra on AWS for Clean Energy Access
Clean energy adoption is one of the most important challenges of our time. Solar power can reduce electricity costs, support sustainability goals, and make communities more energy independent. But for many first-time solar customers, the journey from interest to installation is still confusing.
A customer may need to understand savings, check eligibility, find a trusted solar provider, arrange finance, submit documents, and track the application process. These steps are often scattered across different people, systems, and offline processes.
That is the problem we wanted to solve with SolarMitra.
SolarMitra is a clean-energy and green-finance platform that helps consumers, field agents, finance teams, and solar providers complete the rooftop solar journey in one place. It combines consumer onboarding, solar savings estimation, subsidy awareness, provider onboarding, finance workflows, and operational dashboards into a single digital platform.
For our hackathon deployment, AWS helped us turn SolarMitra from a local project into a live, secure, public web application.
Why We Chose AWS
AWS was the right choice for SolarMitra because it gave us the tools to deploy quickly, securely, and reliably.
During a hackathon, speed matters. We needed an infrastructure setup that could support a working demo without spending too much time on server complexity. At the same time, we wanted the deployment to feel professional and ready for judges to test.
AWS gave us exactly that balance.
We used Amazon EC2 to host our application server and Amazon CloudFront to provide a secure HTTPS public URL.
What SolarMitra Does
SolarMitra brings the rooftop solar adoption journey into one platform.
The project includes:
- A consumer-facing solar journey for estimating savings, checking support, uploading electricity bills, and submitting interest.
- An admin and operator console for managing leads, applications, vendors, transactions, and customer progress.
- A finance workflow for reviewing green-finance applications.
- A provider portal where solar vendors can register, upload documents, and track approval status.
- Demo-ready seeded data so judges can test the product without external setup.
SolarMitra is designed for households, field agents, clean-energy operators, finance teams, and solar providers.
How We Used AWS
SolarMitra is deployed on an Amazon EC2 Ubuntu instance. The backend uses Node.js and Express, while the frontend is built with React and Vite. The Express server serves both the API and the built frontend application.
This means one EC2 instance can host the complete SolarMitra experience:
- Consumer solar journey
- Admin dashboard
- Finance workflow
- Provider registration and login
- REST API endpoints
- Demo data for judging
We used PM2 on EC2 to keep the Node.js server running continuously. This allowed the app to stay available even after closing the SSH session.
We also configured EC2 Security Groups to control access to the server. SSH access is used for deployment and maintenance, while the application port allows traffic to reach the SolarMitra server.
To make the project accessible over HTTPS, we placed Amazon CloudFront in front of the EC2 server. CloudFront gave us a secure public URL and helped make the application feel more production-ready for demonstration.
AWS Services Used
Amazon EC2
Amazon EC2 hosts the SolarMitra application server. It gave us control over the runtime environment, Node.js setup, project files, environment variables, and process management.
Amazon CloudFront
Amazon CloudFront provides the HTTPS public endpoint for the application. It acts as the secure delivery layer between users and the EC2 server.
EC2 Security Groups
Security Groups helped us manage inbound access to the EC2 instance. We configured access for SSH and application traffic.
AWS Global Infrastructure
By using CloudFront, SolarMitra benefits from AWS edge delivery. Even for a hackathon project, this helped us understand how real-world applications can be delivered securely and efficiently.
Open Source Stack Used on AWS
SolarMitra combines AWS cloud services with a modern open-source stack:
- Node.js for backend runtime
- Express.js for API development
- React for frontend user interface
- Vite for frontend build tooling
- TypeScript for safer application development
- PM2 for process management on EC2
- Tesseract.js for browser-based OCR support
- MongoDB and Mongoose-ready architecture for future persistent storage
For the hackathon version, SolarMitra runs in demo mode with seeded in-memory data. This allowed us to deliver a complete working demo without requiring external database setup, while still keeping the architecture ready for future database integration.
How AWS Builder Learn Helped Us
The AWS Builder learning ecosystem helped us understand how to think like cloud builders, not just application developers.
Through AWS learning resources and builder-focused guidance, we were able to better understand cloud concepts such as compute, networking, security groups, public endpoints, HTTPS delivery, and deployment architecture.
AWS Builder Learn is valuable because it makes cloud learning practical. Instead of only learning theory, it encourages builders to create, deploy, test, and improve real applications. That mindset matched our hackathon journey perfectly.
While building SolarMitra, we learned how to:
- Move from local development to cloud deployment
- Host a Node.js application on Amazon EC2
- Configure security group rules correctly
- Use CloudFront to provide HTTPS access
- Think about demo readiness and production readiness separately
- Build a cloud-backed solution that can scale in the future
AWS Builder Learn helped us approach the project with confidence and curiosity. It made AWS feel less like a complex cloud platform and more like a practical toolkit for solving real problems.
Why AWS Made a Difference
AWS helped us transform SolarMitra from an idea into a live solution.
Before deployment, SolarMitra was just a local application. After deploying on AWS, it became something that anyone could open, test, and experience through a public HTTPS link.
That change is powerful.
For a project focused on clean energy, accessibility matters. A platform like SolarMitra needs to be available to customers, field teams, finance reviewers, and solar providers from different locations. AWS gave us the foundation to make that possible.
The biggest benefit was that AWS allowed us to deploy quickly without blocking future growth. Our current hackathon architecture is simple, but it can evolve naturally. In the future, SolarMitra can add managed databases, object storage for documents, monitoring, serverless workflows, and custom domain support.
AWS gives SolarMitra a path from hackathon prototype to real-world platform.
Impact of SolarMitra
SolarMitra is designed to support the clean-energy ecosystem by reducing friction in rooftop solar adoption.
For consumers, it makes the solar journey easier to understand.
For agents and operators, it provides better visibility into leads and applications.
For finance teams, it creates a structured workflow for reviewing green-finance opportunities.
For solar providers, it offers a way to register, submit documents, and participate in the clean-energy marketplace.
Most importantly, SolarMitra shows how digital platforms can support climate action at the last mile.
What We Learned
This project taught us that cloud deployment is not just the final step of a hackathon. It is part of the product experience.
A good idea becomes much more powerful when it is deployed, accessible, secure, and testable.
Using AWS taught us how to think about:
- Infrastructure
- Security
- Scalability
- Reliability
- Public access
- Deployment readiness
It also taught us that AWS is not only for large enterprises. Even student builders and hackathon teams can use AWS services to bring meaningful ideas to life.
Conclusion
Building SolarMitra on AWS was an exciting and valuable experience. AWS helped us deploy a clean-energy platform quickly, securely, and professionally. Amazon EC2 gave us the compute environment we needed, while Amazon CloudFront helped us deliver the application through HTTPS.
AWS Builder Learn also played an important role by helping us understand cloud concepts in a practical, builder-friendly way.
SolarMitra is our attempt to use technology for sustainability, financial inclusion, and better access to rooftop solar. With AWS, we were able to move from concept to live deployment and demonstrate how cloud technology can support real-world climate solutions.
AWS made our hackathon project stronger, more reliable, and more impactful.
Enjoyed reading this content? Let the author know!
Your likes, comments, shares, and saves help creators reach more builders.
Loading recommendations
Loading article