Training and certification of PV installers in Europe. A transnational need for PV industry's competitive growth.

Theocharis Tsoutsos; Stavroula Tournaki; Zacharias Gkouskos; Gaetan Masson; John Holden; Ana Huidobro; Evelina Stoykova; Camelia Rata; Andro Bacan; Christos Maxoulis; Anthi Charalambous

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2012.12.048

Training and certification of PV installers in Europe. A transnational need for PV industry's competitive growth.

Theocharis Tsoutsos^*, Stavroula Tournaki, Zacharias Gkouskos, Gaetan Masson, John Holden, Ana Huidobro, Evelina Stoykova, Camelia Rata, Andro Bacan, Christos Maxoulis, Anthi Charalambous

^*Corresponding author for this work

Photovoltaic Systems

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The European strategy for the coming decades sets specific targets for a sustainable growth, including reaching a 20% share of renewables in final energy consumption till 2020. To achieve this target, a number of initiatives and measures have been in force. Europe, is currently the largest market for PV systems with more than 75% of the annual worldwide installations in 2011. The favourable European policies as well as the Member States' supporting legislations have resulted in high market growth for photovoltaics.Applying PV technologies however, requires high qualified technicians to install, repair and maintain them. Until today, national markets have been growing faster than the skilled PV installers force can satisfy. The PVTRIN, an Intelligent Energy Europe action, addresses these issues by developing a training and certification scheme for technicians active in the installation and maintenance of small scale PV systems. During the implementation of the action, a market research was conducted in the six participating countries in order to record the stakeholders' attitudes, perceptions and considerations and to adapt the training methods, tools and materials to the national PV industry requirements and markets' needs. Indicative results of this analysis as well as the current situation regarding relevant training and certification schemes are presented in this paper.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	593-601
Number of pages	9
Journal	Energy Policy
Volume	55
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.12.048
Publication status	Published - Apr 2013

Funding

This publication is supported by the European Commission under the Intelligent Energy – Europe Programme, within the framework of the project PVTRIN-Training of PV Installers in Europe, Contract number: IEE/09/928/SI2.558379. The sole responsibility for the content of this paper lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. Neither the EACI nor the European Commission is responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Funders	Funder number
European Commission	IEE/09/928/SI2.558379

Keywords

Certification
PV installers
Training

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.enpol.2012.12.048

Cite this

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title = "Training and certification of PV installers in Europe. A transnational need for PV industry's competitive growth.",

abstract = "The European strategy for the coming decades sets specific targets for a sustainable growth, including reaching a 20% share of renewables in final energy consumption till 2020. To achieve this target, a number of initiatives and measures have been in force. Europe, is currently the largest market for PV systems with more than 75% of the annual worldwide installations in 2011. The favourable European policies as well as the Member States' supporting legislations have resulted in high market growth for photovoltaics.Applying PV technologies however, requires high qualified technicians to install, repair and maintain them. Until today, national markets have been growing faster than the skilled PV installers force can satisfy. The PVTRIN, an Intelligent Energy Europe action, addresses these issues by developing a training and certification scheme for technicians active in the installation and maintenance of small scale PV systems. During the implementation of the action, a market research was conducted in the six participating countries in order to record the stakeholders' attitudes, perceptions and considerations and to adapt the training methods, tools and materials to the national PV industry requirements and markets' needs. Indicative results of this analysis as well as the current situation regarding relevant training and certification schemes are presented in this paper.",

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AU - Masson, Gaetan

AU - Holden, John

AU - Huidobro, Ana

AU - Stoykova, Evelina

AU - Rata, Camelia

AU - Bacan, Andro

AU - Maxoulis, Christos

AU - Charalambous, Anthi

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N2 - The European strategy for the coming decades sets specific targets for a sustainable growth, including reaching a 20% share of renewables in final energy consumption till 2020. To achieve this target, a number of initiatives and measures have been in force. Europe, is currently the largest market for PV systems with more than 75% of the annual worldwide installations in 2011. The favourable European policies as well as the Member States' supporting legislations have resulted in high market growth for photovoltaics.Applying PV technologies however, requires high qualified technicians to install, repair and maintain them. Until today, national markets have been growing faster than the skilled PV installers force can satisfy. The PVTRIN, an Intelligent Energy Europe action, addresses these issues by developing a training and certification scheme for technicians active in the installation and maintenance of small scale PV systems. During the implementation of the action, a market research was conducted in the six participating countries in order to record the stakeholders' attitudes, perceptions and considerations and to adapt the training methods, tools and materials to the national PV industry requirements and markets' needs. Indicative results of this analysis as well as the current situation regarding relevant training and certification schemes are presented in this paper.

AB - The European strategy for the coming decades sets specific targets for a sustainable growth, including reaching a 20% share of renewables in final energy consumption till 2020. To achieve this target, a number of initiatives and measures have been in force. Europe, is currently the largest market for PV systems with more than 75% of the annual worldwide installations in 2011. The favourable European policies as well as the Member States' supporting legislations have resulted in high market growth for photovoltaics.Applying PV technologies however, requires high qualified technicians to install, repair and maintain them. Until today, national markets have been growing faster than the skilled PV installers force can satisfy. The PVTRIN, an Intelligent Energy Europe action, addresses these issues by developing a training and certification scheme for technicians active in the installation and maintenance of small scale PV systems. During the implementation of the action, a market research was conducted in the six participating countries in order to record the stakeholders' attitudes, perceptions and considerations and to adapt the training methods, tools and materials to the national PV industry requirements and markets' needs. Indicative results of this analysis as well as the current situation regarding relevant training and certification schemes are presented in this paper.

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Training and certification of PV installers in Europe. A transnational need for PV industry's competitive growth.

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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