0-to-1 product design · Clean energy compliance
We designed Reunion PWA from zero to one: the easiest way for clean energy projects to prove Prevailing Wage and Apprenticeship compliance and secure the full value of their tax credits. It’s built for C-level executives at Fortune 500 and publicly traded companies in the US, and for the contractors who keep their projects compliant.
The result
One of the largest sales of §45X credits, to a Fortune 500 company.
$870M
The problem
Clean energy projects over 1MW that began construction after January 29, 2023 must meet Prevailing Wage and Apprenticeship (PWA) requirements to secure 100% of their tax credit value. Get it wrong and a project can lose up to 80% of its tax credits, along with its reputation.
Proving compliance meant tracking payroll across every contractor and subcontractor, verifying apprenticeship ratios every day and staying audit-ready. It was done manually or with costly third-party consultants, and buyers on the other side of the deal demand rigorous due diligence.
Reunion PWA had to make that easy:
Wage, fringe and apprenticeship requirements tracked from contractors’ payroll reports.
Wages compared against up-to-date Department of Labor wage determinations.
Penalties calculated automatically, with cure payments tracked and documented.
An on-demand final report for tax credit buyers and insurers, to speed up due diligence.
Who we designed for
Leaders at Fortune 500 and publicly traded US companies buying or selling tax credits. They need to see at a glance whether a portfolio is compliant, and trust the answer enough to sign off on a deal.
The teams uploading payroll reports, adding employees and running apprentice programs. They need a user-friendly way to get the details right, without being compliance experts.
The product
Accessibility
Compliance data carries real money and legal risk, and it’s read by executives on a laptop between meetings as much as by contractors on site. Accessibility was a requirement from the first wireframe, not a final check.
Every status is written out: Compliant, Not compliant, Good Faith, Exempt, Missing. People with colour blindness, or anyone printing a report, never has to rely on red and green.
Dark text on light backgrounds, a restrained palette and clear column headers keep dense compliance tables easy to scan and meet contrast guidelines.
Every field has a visible label, required fields are marked, and plain-language helper text explains terms like journeyworker ratio or contract execution date.
Regulatory detail is turned into answers executives can act on: is this project compliant, what’s at risk, and what does it cost to fix.
Forms, tables and dialogs follow a logical order with visible focus, so heavy data entry like payroll reports works without a mouse.
The same navigation, page structure and actions on every screen, so the product is easy to learn for occasional users and those using assistive technology.
From the client
Working with the team has been fantastic! They bring a keen design eye and empathy for the user into every design they create. We have really appreciated their attention to detail that we otherwise would have missed during the design process and value their perspective on design/layout best practices when crafting both product and website pages. We will continue working with them for our design tasks and I would recommend them to any organization needing quality design work.
Alex MelehyProduct & Engineering, Reunion — Exited Founder
Building for high-stakes users?