SEMI India, the Indian arm of the
global industry organization,
SEMI, recently launched a solar
PV work force development initiative,
with a three day short-term course on
"Off-grid Solar PV Components and
Systems" at the India Habitat Center
in New Delhi. 'Skill Development' was
identified as a priority action area by
SEMI India's PV Advisory Committee,
comprising key executives from
India's solar PV industry. This shortterm
course will be the first in a series
of courses that SEMI will organize in
2012 in technical collaboration with
the National Centre for Photovoltaic
Research and Education, IIT Bombay
(NCPRE) and offer in different centers
across the country.
SEMI India's workforce
development initiative aims to
address the needs of SEMI member
companies and of the wider solar PV
industry in India by offering high
quality training programmes
delivered by leading academic and
industry experts and expanding
awareness about state of the art
solar/PV technologies, applications
and practices among engineers and
technical personnel.
Globally, the solar and renewable
energy industries are seen as major
engines of job growth. For those
eyeing the energy sector for jobs,
solar companies could just be their
next big destination. For every 10
jobs created in solar factories, there
will be 15 jobs created downstream,
in installation, financing, project
development, and distribution. So,
to fulfill our target of 20,000 mw of
installed solar power capacity under
the National Solar Mission (NSM),
the Indian solar sector would need
an estimated 3 lakh people by 2022
across all domains, profiles and
levels. If we consider the potential
employment generation by state
solar policies, the cumulative figure
would be much higher, a release by
SEMI India noted.
Globally around 800,000 people are
employed in the solar industry, with
300,000 people in Europe alone.
Currently, the US solar industry
employs about 150,000 people, and
approximately 6,000 people are
employed in the Indian solar industry.
In India, the Ministry of New &
Renewable Energy (MNRE) has
estimated that there will be close to
100,000 jobs in PV by 2020. Industry
sources suggest that if all job linkages
are considered, PV jobs in India could far
exceed this figure.