In order to achieve the 40,000-megawatt target in rooftop solar installations, India will need 10 lakh technicians by 2022, Ishwar Bhavsar, Chairman, Gujarat Energy Development Agency (GEDA), said here on Tuesday.

Speaking at the inaugural function of the Trainers’ Workshop under the National Certification Programme for Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Installer (Certification Programme), he said rooftop solar technology, in spite of its benefits, is a challenging sector on account of the distributed and techno-social nature of the sector.

“In spite of both central and state-level subsidies, we are still facing teething problems and the state’s residential rooftop solar programme has not taken off as expected.”

A major challenge is ensuring the quality of equipment and workmanship of the rooftop solar installation given that an unskilled electrician can attempt to install a system and the consumer would be ignorant about the technology.

Dr. Omkar Jani, Principal Research Scientist (Solar Energy), Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute (GERMI), said it is practically impossible for one institute to train soo many technicians. “Hence we are trying to handhold and develop capacities in a 100 partnering training institutions across the country. Our training partners would train the technicians, while we would standardise the technical content and ensure quality.”

This programme was first launched in January 2015 during the Vibrant Gujarat Summit by Minister for Coal, Power and Renewables Piyush Goyal, where GERMI had signed a memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with several state nodal agencies, distribution companies, solar industries and training institutes. The current training workshop is the fourth such workshop drawing trainers from all over the country. These trainers would go back to their respective organisations and start training technicians there. The programme has achieved close to 100 per cent job placement.

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