Creative DirectionWeb DesignDevelopment

Aether RenovaBuilding the Digital Home of a Clean-Energy Group

Creative direction, brand and website for a Nepal-based clean-energy group developing hydropower, solar and pumped storage, presenting a 500 MW portfolio to investors, partners and future hires.

Tools: Figma, React, Vite, Tailwind, Claude Code
Time Frame: May 2026 – Present
Industry: Renewable Energy
My Role: Head of Marketing & Creative, Web Developer & UI/UX Designer

The challenge

Aether Renova had a strong portfolio of hydropower and solar projects but no single place that told its story. Investors, partners and job seekers each needed different information, and the brand had to feel credible enough for infrastructure finance while staying human and grounded in Nepal.

The result

A fast, content-rich website with dedicated pages for every company, project, investor resource and open role, plus a blog and community stories. A consistent visual language of deep greens, aerial photography and clear data now carries across the site and social channels.

500 MWPortfolio presented

30Pages designed & built

16Open roles listed

01 The website

Thirteen templates, one living site

Every page below is a full-length capture of the shipped site. Start with the homepage or jump straight to a project, the investor page or the community story.

Explore every page

Pick one, then hover (or scroll) the frame to move through the full design.

aetherrenova.com/

aetherrenova.com/projects

aetherrenova.com/projects/kusaha-solar

aetherrenova.com/companies

aetherrenova.com/investors

aetherrenova.com/community/lilapur-paini

aetherrenova.com/careers

aetherrenova.com/team

aetherrenova.com/about

02 Goals

What the site has to do for Nepal

Investors and officials meet Aether Renova through formal channels. For most of the Nepali public, the website is the only face of the company they will ever see, so success was defined for them first.

Build national pride

Show that a homegrown energy company is doing world-class work, for Nepal, by Nepal.

Measured bySocial shares, direct traffic, branded search

Educate and demystify

Explain hydropower, IPOs and energy investment in plain, Nepal-context language.

Measured byBlog views, 3+ min on page, return visits

Build public trust

Prove the company is accountable to the people of Nepal, not extractive.

Measured byPublic contact forms, social sentiment

Open up the IPO

Give everyday Nepalis, not just institutions, the confidence to take part.

Measured byIPO interest sign-ups, newsletter

Create belonging

Make citizens feel like stakeholders in the energy future, not bystanders.

Measured byInternship and innovation applications, RSVPs

Stay in the conversation

Keep the public informed on project progress and national impact.

Measured byBlog subscribers, ranking for energy keywords

03 Anti-goals

What it must never do

Talk down to people with technical or English-heavy content
Put investor jargon on pages meant for the public
Hide behind corporate-speak
Make the IPO feel exclusive or only for the wealthy
Ignore mobile: most Nepalis browse on phones, often on slow connections
Show only success instead of the honest journey

04 People

Five Nepalis, five reasons to visit

Not just investors and officials: a farmer near a project site, a first-time investor, a teacher, an engineering student and a nurse abroad. Each has a different relationship with energy and investment.

Ram Bahadur Thapa

Local community member · 42

Farmer and shopkeeper, Darchula (near the Chameliya project)

“Will we get work? What will this project do for our village?”

Goals

Know if the project brings local jobs
Know if his village gets reliable power
Feel heard and respected

Fears

The company takes land and leaves nothing
Benefits go to Kathmandu, not his village
Nobody explains it in his language

Low-end Android · slow, patchy internet · NepaliKey action · Community impact page

Priya Shrestha

Young professional · 27

Software engineer in Kathmandu, first-time investor

“I keep hearing about IPOs, but which company do I invest in, and what return will I get?”

Goals

Find a trustworthy IPO for her savings
Understand what Aether Renova actually does
Compare it with other options

Fears

Losing savings to an unstable company
An IPO process that's too complicated
Hype that doesn't match reality

iPhone or mid-range Android · fast LTE · bilingualKey action · Register IPO interest

Sita Adhikari

Science teacher · 38

Secondary school, Pokhara

“What do I teach my students about hydropower and Nepal's energy future? I need real examples.”

Goals

Learn about hydropower accurately
Find content she can use in class
See what companies like this contribute

Fears

Propaganda dressed up as education
Content too complex or too vague
Marketing with no real information

School laptop, phone at home · Nepali strongly preferredKey action · Read the blog

Aashish Rai

Engineering student · 22

Civil engineering, Pulchowk Campus

“I'm looking for an internship where I can work on a real site.”

Goals

Find a real engineering internship
See the projects the company builds
Picture a career in Nepal's energy sector

Fears

An internship that's just photocopying
Prestige with no community presence
Applications that go unanswered

Laptop · good internet · EnglishKey action · Apply for an internship

Dipika Gurung

Diaspora nurse · 34

Melbourne, sends money home

“I want to invest in Nepal, but I need a reliable company. Those of us abroad deserve a chance too.”

Goals

Find a transparent Nepali company to invest in
Feel proud contributing from abroad
Get clear information in English

Fears

Being scammed or misled
A complicated process for non-resident Nepalis
No contact channel for diaspora investors

iPhone · fast internet · browses outside Nepal hoursKey action · Contact the investor team

05 Routes

Every visitor gets a clear path

Each persona has one page built for them and one action that matters, so five very different people can find what they came for.

VisitorLands onTakes action

RamDarchula · Nepali · low-end Android
Community: Lilapur Paini
Sees local jobs and benefits
PriyaKathmandu · first-time investor
Investors
Registers IPO interest
SitaPokhara · teacher
Blog
Reads and teaches with it
AashishPulchowk · engineering student
Careers
Applies for an internship
DipikaMelbourne · diaspora
Investors · Contact
Talks to the investor team

06 Competition

Who's out there, and the gap they leave

Five Nepali hydropower and corporate sites, reviewed for what they do well, where they fall short, and what Aether Renova could own instead.

	Strength	Weakness	The gap we can fill
Chilime Hydropower	Established, listed, known to investors	Dated, too many nav items, hard on mobile, no community story	Own the emotional story of why energy matters
NHPC / NEA	Official credibility and scale	Bureaucratic, cold, no personality	Be the warm, human face of the sector
CG Corp / Sangrila	Polished, investor-friendly	Not energy-focused, no project transparency	Pair financial polish with grassroots accountability
Upper Tamakoshi	Major project, strong media coverage	No public brand narrative	Build an energy brand people feel connected to
Ridi Hydropower	Active in media and listings	Generic and English-heavy	Be truly bilingual and community-first

07 Benchmarks

Borrowed from the best in the world

Ørsted
Tells a national story of transformation. Own your narrative arc.
Tata Power
Community pages and employee stories. Corporate can still feel human.
Adani Green
Rich project data, but cold. Data needs emotional context.
Enel
Multilingual, real people and places. Show more than megawatts.
Druk Green Power
Energy tied to national identity. Sovereignty is a powerful story.

08 Positioning

Where nobody is playing

Mapping every feature by how common it is showed a clear blue ocean.

Own it

Nobody does this

Bilingual site with equal quality
Community impact page with real stories
Innovation program open to all Nepalis
A path for diaspora investors
Team and employee wellbeing as brand content

Compete

Some do this

Live project milestone tracker
IPO investor education
Blog and SEO on Nepal energy
Partner inquiry forms
Events calendar

Table stakes

Everyone does this

Company overview
Project listings
Contact form
Management team
Investor section

09 Key insight

No hydropower developer in Nepal has built a website the public genuinely connects with. They speak in megawatts and IRR. Aether Renova can be the first energy company Nepalis see as a national institution they're proud of, like Tata in India or Druk Green in Bhutan.

10 How might we

Five questions for the design sprint

How might weMake Nepalis feel Aether Renova's success is their own, and build the homepage hero around that feeling?Everyone
How might weHelp a first-time investor feel genuinely confident about the IPO, not sold to?Priya · Dipika
How might weMake the Nepali version feel just as polished and primary, never an afterthought?Ram · Sita
How might weShow real project progress, with honest photos and timelines, without it looking unfinished?Everyone
How might weMake communities near project sites feel seen and represented on the site?Ram

11 Sitemap

The structure that shipped

The live site, page for page: projects with their own stories, a community page for the people near them, and clear routes for investors and job seekers.

Aether Renova

Projects

Chameliya Chettigad hydropower
Dhalkebar solar
Kusaha solar

Companies

West Star Hydropower
Solaeris Energy
Terra Sol Energy
Grid Nepal

About

Team
Community
- Lilapur Paini

Investors

IPO & portfolio
Investor contact

Blog

Articles

Careers

Open roles
Role details

Contact

12 Design highlights

Research, designed in

Eight moments where a how-might-we question became a real part of the site.

01 Homepage

Nepal first, company second

The hero opens on a Nepali river valley, not a logo wall, with the portfolio in three plain numbers. It answers the first sprint question: make the company's success feel like the country's.

02 Homepage

One group, clearly mapped

Five companies and four active projects sit in one browsable list, so investors and partners can see the whole structure without digging.

03 Projects

Every project on the map

A live map of Nepal shows where each plant is and how far along it is, replacing walls of text with something anyone can read.

04 Kusaha Solar

Honest timelines

Each project page has a construction schedule with real milestones, so progress (and delays) are shown openly instead of hidden.

05 Investors

Confidence, not hype

The investor page builds toward the portfolio goal with a simple growth chart and a step-by-step 'How to invest', written for first-time investors like Priya.

06 Community

People near the projects, seen

Lilapur Paini tells the story of a fishing community in its own words and photos: the page Ram was missing on every competitor's site.

07 Careers

Real roles, real answers

Sixteen open roles with filters and clear details, so students like Aashish know exactly what they're applying for.

08 Team

Faces, not a faceless corporation

Leadership and the wider team are shown by name and photo, a small detail that does a lot for public trust.

13 Mobile

Built for a phone in Darchula

Most Nepalis browse on phones, often on slow connections. Every page was designed mobile-first and pre-rendered so it loads fast.

The process

01
Discovery
Defined public goals and anti-goals, built five personas from Darchula to Melbourne, reviewed five Nepali competitors and five international benchmarks, and mapped the blue ocean no one else is claiming.
02
Ideation
Built the information architecture around companies and projects, sketched page templates, and set the art direction: aerial landscapes, confident type and a single energetic green.
03
Create
Designed and developed the site in React with pre-rendered pages for SEO, reusable sections for projects and careers, and smooth, restrained motion.
04
Measure
Each goal has a measure: branded search and shares for pride, time on page for education, public contact forms for trust, IPO interest sign-ups for participation, and applications and RSVPs for belonging.

Visit aetherrenova.com

Brand identity

One parent brand, many companies

The identity system works as a parent brand with two divisions and a family of energy companies. Each company keeps its own character while staying visibly part of Aether Renova.

Aether RenovaParent brand

Aether Renova HoldingsStrategy & investment

Aether Renova ConstructionExecution & engineering

Portfolio companies

West Star HydropowerSolaeris EnergyTerra Sol EnergyGrid Nepal

InnovationSustainabilityStrength

Branding created in collaboration with Anna Gurung.

View the brand case study

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