About this course

Utility-scale solar is being built faster than the industry can inspect it. Underperformance studies keep finding the same culprits: cracked cells from rough module handling, under-torqued connections, mismated connectors, tracker misalignment, and turnover packages that fall apart under an independent
engineer's review. Most of these defects were visible, preventable, and cheap to fix on the day they happened — and enormously expensive to fix after energization.

This course teaches participants how to build and run a QA/QC program that catches defects when they cost hundreds of dollars, not millions. It walks the full arc of a utility-scale project — contracts and quality plans, civil and mechanical installation, DC and AC electrical work, defect management, and turnover — using a single fictional case-study project that runs through every module so lessons land in a realistic context rather than as abstract checklists.

Learning Objectives

  • Explain the difference between QA, QC, and commissioning — and assign clear ownership of each across the owner, EPC, and subcontractors.
  • Read and strengthen the quality exhibits in an EPC contract, including inspection and test plans (ITPs), hold and witness points, and documentation requirements.
  • Build a project-specific Quality Management Plan that field teams will use.
  • Perform and interpret the core inspections and tests of utility-scale construction: pile embedment and torque verification, tracker alignment, module handling and EL screening, DC torque marking and connector inspection, insulation resistance, IV curve tracing, IR scanning, and MV cable testing.
  • Run a defect management system — punch lists, nonconformance reports, root cause analysis, and corrective action — that prevents repeat defects instead of just logging them.
  • Assemble a turnover documentation package and assess commissioning readiness at mechanical completion.

Course outline

10 modules
16 - 20 hours to complete
4:13 hours of video lectures
Welcome • 3 assignments
Orientation Materials

This course is self-paced, so you don’t need to be logged in at any specific time. You can get started immediately after you enroll and the course materials will remain in your account with minimum guaranteed access for 12 months (1 year) after enrollment.

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Module 1 • 5 assignments
Why Quality Fails at Utility Scale

Sagebrush Flats Solar breaks ground. The EPC's schedule shows 1,100 piles a week; the owner's pro forma assumes 25 years at P50. Somebody has to make those two numbers compatible, and for the rest of this course that somebody is you. This module builds the economic argument everything else rests on: how a two-dollar defect becomes a two-million-dollar repair as the schedule buries it, why QA, QC, and commissioning are three separate jobs with three separate owners, and where in a utility-scale build quality is actually won or lost. You'll leave with an editable owner/EPC/subcontractor responsibility matrix and vocabulary precise enough to end the usual turf wars before they start.

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Module 2 • 7 assignments
Contracts, Standards, and the Rules of the Game

The Sagebrush Flats quality exhibit runs four pages. The tracker supplier's installation manual runs 190. When they conflict, which one governs—and what did the owner forget to specify while there was still leverage to do so? This module is a working tour of the standards inspectors actually cite (IEC, UL, IEEE, ASTM, NEC) plus the manufacturer manuals that function as de facto law on site. You'll learn what a strong quality exhibit contains, the real difference between hold and witness points, and how to write requirements that can be verified rather than merely asserted. You'll leave with an Excel ITP template built around acceptance criteria, frequencies, responsible parties, and records.

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Module 3 • 6 assignments
The Quality Management Plan in Practice

Corporate sends you a 60-page boilerplate QMP. The field crews have read exactly zero pages of it. Your job this module is converting shelf-ware into a system people use on a Tuesday. We cover the six chapters a real QMP needs — roles and named authority, document control, training and qualification, calibration, inspection flow — then the two things that decide whether any of it survives contact with the field: checklists crews complete honestly, and a data trail that can answer "show me every connection Crew D made in March" in five minutes instead of five weeks. You'll leave with an editable QMP skeleton outline and a one-page photo documentation field guide built to be laminated.

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Module 4 • 5 assignments
Civil & Mechanical QA/QC: Piles, Trackers, and Modules

The system meets the dirt. This is the highest-volume quality workload on any tracker project, and the scope where mistakes are cheapest to fix and fastest to bury. We work through foundations first — pile testing, refusals, embedment verification, and why a clean drive log can hide a short pile — then tracker assembly, torque discipline, alignment, and the module installation practices that decide whether cell cracks show up in year one or year seven. You'll leave with a printable mechanical installation checklist set.

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Module 5 • 5 assignments
Electrical QA/QC: The DC Side

Forty thousand connector matings a month at peak. A defect rate of 0.1% would make any crew proud, and it still creates forty future hot spots a month, each one buried under wire management within days. This module covers the arithmetic problem at the heart of DC QA/QC: connectors and terminations, crimping and tooling control, torque, bonding and grounding, wire management, and the desert conditions that turn specification shortcuts into premature failures. We also cover test interpretation — insulation resistance and IV curve tracing — so a number means something when you see it. You'll leave with a DC test log workbook with live pass/fail logic.

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Module 6 • 5 assignments
Electrical QA/QC: AC, Medium Voltage, and Inverters

The volume game ends, and the stakes game begins. One bad MV splice can take an entire block offline in peak season, and the trench closes exactly once. This module covers inverter receiving and pad installation, anchoring, clearances, and commissioning prerequisites; MV cable pulling tensions, bend radii, splice and termination workmanship, and VLF or partial-discharge testing fundamentals; then substation interfaces, transformer receipt and dress-out, relay and metering, and what "SCADA ready" should actually mean at mechanical completion. You'll leave with curated reading on MV testing methods and a sharper sense of which moments deserve your witness points.

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Module 7 • 5 assignments
Defect Management: Punch Lists, NCRs, and Root Cause Analysis

Sagebrush Flats has 214 open punch items; the EPC swears they're all minor, and the independent engineer walks in a week. Finding defects was the easy part. This module builds the system that closes them: punch lists that converge instead of breeding, the threshold where an issue becomes an NCR, disposition decisions (rework, repair, use-as-is), the approval trail behind them, and root cause analysis that fixes systems instead of blaming hands. You'll leave with an NCR form template and a punch list tracker with aging and closure-rate dashboards, plus an RCA rewrite exercise where you fix a weak analysis before seeing the model answer.

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Module 8 • 7 assignments
Mechanical Completion, Turnover, and Commissioning Readiness

The finish line. The EPC declares mechanical completion on Block 1, and your last act as Sagebrush Flats' Quality Manager is deciding whether the paper matches the field — then proving it. This module defines "done": what a complete turnover package contains, the gaps independent engineers find most often, how to structure walkdowns by system and sample completed work, and how to hold the line against "we'll catch it in commissioning." We close on cold and hot commissioning prerequisites and the handoff to operations. You'll leave with a turnover checklist, a mechanical completion walkdown form, and the capstone: assemble a real mini quality package as a self-graded exercise.

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Conclusion • 4 assignments
Feedback and Additional Resources

This is our last module but you still have access to the all of course materials for 12 months (1 year), so keep working and you'll be able to complete the course at your own pace. After your year of access expires you can optionally extend access with a HeatSpring Membership. Enjoy the course and keep in touch!

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Instructor

Julie Stiglish

Managing Member, JS Renewable Energy Group

Julie Stiglish Owner & Managing Member, JS Renewable Energy Group LLC A 25-year electrical construction veteran, Julie Stiglish has spent the past 16 years in utility-scale solar — the side of the fence where quality is either built in or paid for later. She is the founder of JS Renewable Energy Group, a woman-owned consulting firm based in Arizona that provides...

Frequently asked questions

Full FAQ
How does this course work?
You can begin this online course instantly upon enrollment. This course is delivered entirely online. Pre-order courses are available on launch date. This course is self-paced and you can set your own schedule to complete the materials. You can begin the lecture videos and other course materials as soon as you enroll. During your year of access the instructor will be in the course answering questions on the discussion board. After successfully completing the course, you will be able to generate a certificate of completion.
How long do I have access to the materials?
Students get unlimited access to the course materials as soon as they enroll and for one year (365 days) after enrollment. Rewatch videos and review assignments as many times as you want. View updates the instructor makes to the course as the industry advances. Return to your course anytime with online access from anywhere in the world. After the one year of access expires, access can be extended by joining as a HeatSpring member. A single membership extends access to course materials for all past enrollments.
Will the instructor really answer my questions during this course?
Yes! This is an instructor-led online course. You can ask questions on the discussion board and get prompt answers from your instructor. It varies by instructor and by course but typically instructors check-in between daily and weekly to check quiz results or project work, review and respond to discussion board questions and read survey responses. Check the enrollment page for specific information about each instructor's check-in frequency.
Is there a certificate of completion?
Yes, when you complete this course you are eligible for a certificate of completion from HeatSpring. You can download your certificate as soon as you have completed all of the course requirements. Students can easily share their verified certificates on their LinkedIn profiles using our LinkedIn integration.
Can I register multiple people?
Yes, please visit our For Teams page to get a group discount.

$895

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