Building skills for energy access
Facts, challenges & objectives
Goals for decentral energy access, productive use and a just energy transition require expanding skills – especially to rural areas. The international renewable energy agency IRENA estimates that off-grid renewables for energy access can create at least 4.5 million jobs by 2030.
Growing demand for off-grid, decentralised renewable energy (DRE) solutions is challenged by a shortage of skilled professionals to design, finance, sell, install, operate and maintain systems.
The German government’s Green People’s Energy for Africa initiative aims to improve skills development offers for key stakeholders in the decentralised renewable energy ecosystem (e.g. technicians, sales agents, extension officers, credit institutes, teachers).
Especially in rural areas, lack of skilled professionals leads to:
- low knowledge about DRE systems and thus demand.
- few distribution networks and business models for sales, operation and maintenance.
- lack of access-to-finance for end-users.
- low-quality system installations and poor sustainability.
To achieve its goal, Green People’s Energy for Africa supports vocation training institutes and technical universities to offer new and improved practical training modules for professionals. The initiative also runs other skills development measures.
Training models
- Short courses targeted at local profesisonals with some experience (and in some cases also students)
- Provide practical skills to better plan, finance, implement, operate and maintain decentralised renewable energy systems.
- Technological focus is on productive use technologies (solar irrigation, solar cooling, solar drying, solar water heaters), solar PV systems and mini-grids.
- Sustainability of the new training offers is ensured either by integrating them in existing national TVET structures or cooperating with business-oriented schools.
Skills development measuress
- Training needs analysis and selection of partner training institutes
- Private sector-led development of curricula and training handbooks
- Supply of demo systems, training stands and materials for partner schools
- Training of trainer (ToT) – programmes
- Roll-out of short-course training modules in cooperation with trained trainers
- Facilitation of practical placements for trained professional
Articles on skills development measures
- All
- Benin
- Côte d’Ivoire
- Ethiopia
- Ghana
- International
- Kenya
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Rwanda
- Senegal
- Togo
- Uganda
- Zambia