Innovative Skill Development Techniques for Solar Power Plants and Solar PV Job Creation in India

Renewable energy has demonstrated enormous potential to address energy access gaps in India, but the sector's growth has been constrained by the lack of skilled manpower for critical functions. As per the reports shared by many Government and Private organizations on Occupational Mapping and Skill Gap Analysis, India needs to create 10 million new jobs every year in renewable energy sector, and the analysis also shows that as many as 1 million Full Time Equivalent (FTE) jobs could be created in Solar PV Sector only if India achieves its target of 100 GW of installed solar energy by 2022. Given the large employment generation potential of solar in India, a significant proportion of the Indian workforce would need to be trained with the necessary skills to support the burgeoning solar market. Innovative aspects of field training skills are discussed in this paper.