Georg Bopp, Sebastian Golz, Felix Holz, Werner Roth, Gisela Vogt
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Heidenhofstr.2, 79110 Freiburg, Germany
Tel +49 (0)761/4588-5228; Fax: +49(0)761/4588-9283; sebastian. goelz@ise. fraunhofer. de

Introduction

Education, training and awareness raising is recognised to be a main task for the development of markets and technologies. One reason for the failure of many projects and programs of rural electrification attributes to the lack of knowledge, training and competence of participating people at all levels. (International Energy Agency IEA, 2003).

All these alerting experiences advise that different accompanying measures have to be considered in line with designing and implementing solar power systems. Both in grid coupled and off-grid markets cultural, social, economical, organisational, and financial aspects have to be incorporated (Will & Vogt, 2003). Various competencies and skills are required to plan, implement, commission, and promote solar power systems. Therefore the substantial objective of this article is to illustrate the spectrum of relevant training topics, to report from current state of knowledge in two exemplary markets and to describe the profit of customised training programs.

1. Training and further education for comprehensive market support

At all levels of off-grid and rural electrification projects an extensive demand for training can be identified (Vogt, Will, & Sauer, 2003). Investors, politicians, planners, installers, suppliers, users, and service personnel frame the target groups of different training programs. During the last years, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE has conducted various projects (SUNRISE, SOPRA-RE; SOLTRAIN) to design and to accomplish training concepts for these target groups. Starting from these experiences Fraunhofer ISE offers a broad assortment of programs for further education. The various job training, designed and applied by an interdisciplinary team, cover the following target groups and topics as listed in chart 1: