Minister Launches GERMI's National Certification Programme for Solar Rooftop
The National Certification Programme for Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Installer was launched by GERMI in the presence of the Honourable Ministers "“ Sri Piyush Goyal (Union Minister for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy), Sri Saurubhbhai Patel (Cabinet Minister, Gujarat for Finance, Energy and Petrochemicals), Sri Bhupendrasinh Chudasma (Cabinet Minister, Gujarat for Education, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs), Sri Govindbhai Patel (Minister of State-Gujarat for Energy and Petrochemicals Minister for Energy and Petrochemicals, Science and Technology), Sri Jayantibhai Kavadiya (Minister of State-Gujarat for Panchayat, Rural Housing and Development), Dr. Kandeh Yumkella (UN Undersecretary General), Dr. P. K. Mishra (Additional Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India), and Dr. Upendra Tripathy (Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy-MNRE, Government of India). The Programme was launched on 12 January 2015, as a part of the Vibrant Gujarat 2015 Summit at Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar.
This National Programme is being organised by the Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute (GERMI), Gandhinagar, Gujarat. GERMI is a technical back-stopper of the Government of Gujarat. It is the forefront in energy matters. GERMI itself has sprouted from one of the MoU's signed in the first Vibrant Gujarat Summit in 2003. In this Vibrant Gujarat-2015, GERMI has signed memorandum of understandings (MoU) with 8 state nodal agencies or distribution companies throughout India and 20 leading solar companies of India to recognize and promote this Programme. GERMI has already undertaken similar solar professional and vocational trainings throughout the country in the past, and now is aiming to empower other institutions throughout the country to scale up the training.
GERMI has signed MoU with the following State Nodal Agencies like Gujarat Energy Development Agency (GEDA), Chhattisgarh State Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA), Jharkhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (JREDA) and New & Renewable Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Ltd. (NREDCAP). The distribution company with which GERMI signed the MoU are Bangalore Electricity supply company Ltd. (BESCOM), BSES Rajdhani Power Limited, BSES Yamuna Power Ltd. The solar companies were SunEdison, Azure Power, Energy and Environment Foundation, GMR Group, WAREE Energies Ltd., Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd., Madhav Group, Harsha Abakus Solar Private Ltd., Studer Innotec India Pvt. Ltd., Tata Power Solar System Ltd., IL&FS Energy Development Company Limited and Bergen Solar Power & Energy Ltd. (BSPEL). The other entities with which GERMI signed MoU were Solar Energy Society of India (SESI), National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI), and Acharya Nagarjuna University (ANU).
This Programme is designed to meet the challenge of developing skilled and qualified manpower to install rooftop photovoltaic systems throughout the country and is open to technicians, students as well as entrepreneurs. The MNRE has recently set a target of installing 40,000 megawatts of rooftop solar systems by 2022, and many states are launching similar policies and programmes. Today India has only 300 megawatts of solar photovoltaics installed on rooftops out of the total 2,900 megawatts of solar installations. However, rooftop solar systems are more attractive as they utilize the already existing roof space rather than using dedicated land. Energy is generated at the point of use and thus eliminating the typical transmission and distribution losses, and empowers an ordinary consumer to be self-sufficient in terms of energy.
