New Course: Development in Utility-Scale Solar

Many people who work in solar have never seen all the work that gets put in before construction begins. 

If you’re in construction, you inherit a project that someone else spent years putting together. If you’re in finance or asset management, you’re evaluating deals that have already been through the development gauntlet. The phase that shapes everything downstream is one that often gets the least formal attention.

That’s exactly the gap that Andy Nyce’s new course, Development in Utility-Scale Solar, is designed to close.

Development: the foundation everything else is built on 

Development is the process of transforming raw land into something a bank will fund and an EPC will build. It’s speculative work done largely at the developer’s own risk, and it’s the longest, most complex phase of any utility-scale solar project.

From site identification to a full notice to proceed, the timeline typically runs three to seven years. The single biggest driver today is the interconnection queue, which alone can consume two to five years in most U.S. markets. That reality shapes how projects are financed, how landowner agreements are structured, and how development teams have to manage expectations across all their stakeholders.

What the course covers

The course walks through the full development lifecycle across six lessons, each one going deep on a specific phase:

• The Development Landscape: how developers make money, the three ownership models, the key players, and what actually kills most projects before they reach construction
• Land Control and Real Estate: option agreements, lease structure, mineral rights, ALTA surveys, and why title issues can stop a project cold at the financing stage
• Permitting and Environmental: the layered federal, state, and local agency landscape, seasonal dependencies for environmental studies, and how responsibility is split between developer and EPC
• Interconnection: the dominant risk in US solar development today, including the three-study process, network upgrade cost exposure, and what FERC Order 2023 means in practice
• Project Finance and Economics: the capital stack, tax equity, the ITC, ITC safe harbor, PPA structure, and the financing readiness gates that govern development-stage decisions
• EPC Handoff and Development Close-Out: what the EPC actually receives, how EPC selection works, the LNTP and FNTP milestone framework, and the handoff failure modes that show up repeatedly in the field

Who this course for

Andy draws on his direct involvement in over 2 gigawatts of utility-scale solar execution to give learners a practical, ground-up understanding of the development process. Project managers, construction professionals, finance teams, and anyone new to the industry will find the development process easier to navigate with this foundation in place. 

Enroll in Development in Utility-Scale Solar today!