Julie Stiglish

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 owner's-side QA/QC oversight, construction quality management, and independent inspection services for utility-scale PV and storage projects across the United States—a portfolio spanning more than 5 GW of solar and storage construction.

Julie built that practice on a foundation few consultants have: years inside First Solar, where she provided EHS and electrical safety and quality oversight to both the EPC and manufacturing groups — seeing quality from the factory floor to the field, and learning where defects are born, not just where they're found. That mix of manufacturer, owner, and field perspective is the backbone of her teaching. She has stood at the pile that passed on paper and failed in the ground, and she teaches inspection the way it actually happens: photograph first, answer second.

A licensed Master Electrician in multiple states, Julie also holds credentials from the NFPA, the Board of Certified Safety Professionals, and as a Certified Electrical Inspector. Her HeatSpring courses — Utility-Scale Solar QA/QC Fundamentals and the free companion The Defect Files: 10 Solar Construction Defects Hiding in Plain Sight — are built on a single argument she has watched play out on real sites: the same defect costs $2 at installation and $2 million in operation, and the difference is a trained eye at the right hold point.