National Safety Month Spotlight: The Vital Role a Culture of Safety Plays in the Solar Industry

Utility-scale solar is continuing its pace of rapid growth, but as the industry scales, so must its safety protocols and programs. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), utility-scale solar grew by 33% in 2024 – a second consecutive annual record. While it’s an exciting time in the industry, keeping field teams, employees, and surrounding communities safe is paramount. Here’s a rundown of how a culture of safety keeps standards high and people protected.

A Culture of Safety Starts on Day One 

Safety is an essential element in onboarding. Instilling a culture of safety from day one sets a tone that carries forward beyond initial training. CS Energy follows these steps consistently as part of our commitment to safety:  

• We onboard new employees and team members with live, on-site training. New hires spend the first three days learning about and meeting people from all departments so they have a clear understanding of how everyone works together. 

• New hires get an in-depth overview of our core EHS and Quality programs and learn how our support systems are structured to back them up in the field.

• Every new team member gets a tailored onboarding plan. This includes one-on-one sessions that focus on the details of their specific contract. 

•  To make the training relevant, we don’t just talk theory. New hires review real-world examples with teammates who’ve worked similar jobs, so they see exactly how we’ve applied those quality and safety plans on active or past projects.

• We also run a two-part live remote training with experienced instructors. This covers our safety and quality systems in depth—policies, procedures, forms, the works. 

A strong start is important, but we don’t stop there. In subsequent site audits, we highlight areas for potential improvement and ways to tighten up operations even further. 

The bottom line: an investment in training is one of the most important investments a cleantech company can make for safe construction environments, high-quality work, and high results. 

Ongoing Training 

In a culture of safety, training is not one and done. Going beyond the mandatory basics and making safety a part of everyday operations is key to managing safe and productive sites. At CS Energy, we keep safety front and center with these ongoing practices:

•  We hold “Toolbox Talks” on-site without exception. These talks are short, focused, and built to keep safety top of mind for everyone on the ground. 

• Every year, CS Energy operations personnel go through mandatory, in-person Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) classroom training. It gives our teams a chance to reset, reinforce the fundamentals, and dig into real incidents. 

• Many of our field team members complete NFPA 70E electrical safety training—some or general awareness, others to earn certification. Regardless of the reason, the goal is the same: to work smarter and stay safe around energized equipment.

•  For our Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) and Quality team members, continuous improvement isn’t optional. We support them in attending or even leading continuing education sessions to stay sharp, keep up with industry changes, and maintain professional certifications.

• To enhance their skills even further, we encourage Quality team members to pursue additional optional certifications, such as USACE’s Construction Quality Management for Contractors course and NABCEP’s PV Installation Professional (PVIP) and/or Energy Storage Installation Professional (ESIP) certifications. On the EHS side, we have employees earning credentials like Construction Health & Safety Technician (CHST), Certified Safety Professional (CSP), and Certified Instructional Trainer (CIT).

The goal here is simple: keep raising the bar. When our teams are trained and certified, our projects run more smoothly, safely, and with the level of quality our clients count on. 

Safety Best Practices 

Site audits are standard safety best practices, and the number one thing that makes a difference in a site audit is viewing it as a learning opportunity. When our EHS teams show up on-site for audits, they don’t just check boxes—they walk the field with the crew. It gives them a chance to ask questions, talk shop, and pass along real knowledge that helps make the team stronger and safer.

Communication is also vital to safety. We keep everyone in the loop on important updates—whether it’s on safety gear, new info from manufacturers, or changes from regulators. If a regulation changes, we break it down so the site team knows exactly what’s different and what needs to happen to stay compliant. Internally, we communicate these updates through our company All Hands Meeting, toolbox talks, daily safety messages, reports, lessons learned, Weekly safety summary, etc. 

Last, being proactive is part of our culture of safety. We don’t wait for information to come to us. Instead, we stay abreast of news, dig into industry journals, stay on top of resources, and adapt to industry best practices. Being proactive ensures that our teams aren’t caught off guard and can keep delivering high-quality work within the highest standards of safety.

Supervising Safety  

Supervisors and managers play a vital role in fostering a culture of safety and quality on the job site. Our Site Superintendents serve as Designated Site Safety Managers, setting the tone by leading through example. This includes consistently wearing the appropriate PPE and strictly adhering to all safety protocols—demonstrating the standards they expect their crews to follow.

The same approach extends to our Quality teams. Supervisors and managers carry the responsibility of keeping quality expectations high and maintaining it through handoffs between departments, such as business development, design/engineering, supply chain, and our external partners. Every step matters, and leaders need to be checking and balancing deliverables to make sure we’re building everything right the first time.

Our Operations teams work closely with the Quality team to bring our program plans into early contract discussions, so we work toward quality and safety from day one. EHS and Quality teams stay connected with site leadership to keep relationships strong. Teamwork, open communication, and trust keep our sites running safely, smoothly, and successfully. 

Ongoing Program Improvements 

There are no shortcuts to maintaining safety, and we are always looking for ways to strengthen our programs even further. A few recent examples: 

• Our EHS team rolled out a Good Catch program to encourage hazard spotting before they turn into incidents or near misses. 

• We’ve implemented a pre-mobilization meeting for every crew, where we review key safety & quality programs, policies, and procedures before work begins. The results speak for themselves—crews are now identifying hazards more effectively, completing forms correctly, and clearly understanding what’s expected to build a quality project safely. This early alignment has significantly reduced issues down the line and set everyone up for success from day one.

• On the quality side, we use Microsoft Power BI to track and analyze project performance. It gives us a fair, apples-to-apples look at how each site team is doing with their self-directed quality checks. 

• We’re keeping a close eye on key milestones: installer mock-ups, first article inspections, early underground and above-ground electrical work, grounding, conductor paths, cabinet mounting, terminations, torquing, and so on. These are the things that set the tone for the whole job. If we catch problems early, we avoid rework and delays down the line. That’s how we keep building smarter.

Extending Safety Standards to Subcontractors and Partners

At CS Energy, every subcontractor, including tier subcontractors, must fully understand and follow our safety standards to be part of our projects. We use the Avetta system to ensure all subcontractors meet our rigorous safety and compliance criteria, and we conduct additional vetting beyond that to maintain our high standards.  This approach ensures that everyone receives information directly from the source, leaving no room for miscommunication or misunderstandings.

Before any project begins, every subcontractor—and their lower-tier partners—must review, understand, and formally commit to our site-specific Health and Safety Plan. Only after meeting these requirements are they added to the permit-to-work system and cleared to begin work on-site.

These protocols ensure that everyone is aligned under the same requirements and standards, working together to maintain a safe and compliant job site.

Solar energy is continuing to expand across the U.S., providing cleaner and economically beneficial energy sources to more and more communities. We are committed to making sure that this growth happens with the highest standards of safety. 

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Site Audit Spotlight

During a recent site audit, we identified a need for improved hazard recognition. In response, we worked directly with the foreman to deliver focused re-training on identifying and assessing hazards. That single session made a significant impact, and compliance with hazard assessments and related documentation improved across the board. The rest of the project ran smoothly, with no incidents, issues, or surprises. It’s a strong example of how timely, targeted training can make a lasting difference.

Safety Best Practice Spotlight  

One of our CS Energy best practices is comprehensive prep talks with subcontractors.

Recent preparatory discussions around underground conduit placement before pouring equipment pads have helped prevent rework multiple times and contributed to a safer job site. It’s a great example of how a simple, proactive step can lead to meaningful results in the field.