India’s ministry of New and Renewable Energy is working on a proposal to start several diploma and technical training courses in renewable energy specifically in solar energy systems. The ministry feels that there would be tremendous demand for skilled technicians as several project developers would launch their solar energy plants and other renewable energy power plants in the near future.
The ministry recently gave approvals to the first projects of the National Solar Mission which would make India the leading solar energy power generator by 2022. The National Solar Mission would add 20,000 MW of solar PV and solar thermal power plants across the country in the three phases, with the first phase (till 2013) seeing an addition of 1000 MW capacity of solar PV and solar thermal.
Several state-owned companies, private firms as well as foreign investors are looking to establish large-scale power plants and cashing in on the plethora of subsidies and tax benefits being offered by the government to renewable energy power producers. The demand for renewable energy-based electricity is expected to increase significantly since all Indian states are obligated to procure at least ten percent of their power from renewable sources.
With several power plants sprouting up around the country the requirement of a technically skilled workforce would be essential. Several hundred thousand technicians would be required for the planning and designing of the power plants; construction and installation of the generating units and transmission equipment and monitoring and maintenance of the equipment.
Such courses would not only help cater the rising demands of workforce in the renewable energy sector but would also help in generation of jobs. The government is encouraging the use of Indian-made equipment in power plants thus there would also be a demand from the manufacturing sector with several solar cell and collector manufacturing companies looking to expand their capacities.
India already has industrial training centres called the ITIs which provide vocational training to young people in the operations carried out in the industries. After the completion of their training these young professionals are absorbed by the electrical, computer & IT and several other manufacturing and services sectors.
Image: technicolorcavalry/Flickr/CC
The views presented in the above article are author’s personal views and do not represent those of TERI/TERI University where the author is currently pursuing a Master’s degree.
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