How fast India builds its renewable energy capacity will depend in a very big way not just on political will and policy announcements but on how quickly it can find and train thousands of skilled workers

The current rate of installing new electricity capacity in the United States is about 10 gigawatts (GW) per year. When China was growing at 10 per cent, it was installing about 100 GW annually. India is somewhere in between, installing 28.6 GW in 2015, 21.7 GW in 2014 and 22.9 GW in 2013. Building energy infrastructure quickly is a daunting proposition. It needs money, material, and men (and women). How fast India builds its renewable energy capacity will depend in a very big way not just on political will and policy announcements but on how quickly it can find and train thousands of skilled workers.

In just a few short years, India has become a world leader in clean energy. In 2010, when India launched the National Solar Mission with a target of 20,000 megawatts (MW) of solar power by 2022, it had less than 20 MW installed. Today, India has crossed 5,000 MW. The government has dramatically increased the solar target to 100,000 MW by 2022.

But this leadership in solar and other renewables remains contingent on actual action on the ground. Much attention is often given to issues such as policy certainty, cost of finance, land acquisition and power evacuation, or credibility of the power-purchase agreements signed. These are all important concerns. Yet, little discussion occurs on the issue of the skilled labour needed to design, construct and operate projects. This is odd, since India needs to create at least 10 million new jobs every year. Understanding the job potential in solar power and matching it to specific skills would be a fillip to the solar mission as well as Skill India.

In our report released by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy at the Make in India event this week, Filling the Skill Gap in India’s Clean Energy Market: Solar Energy Focus, we analyse the types of skills needed to grow India’s solar market. We surveyed 40 solar companies for this analysis, in addition to multiple roundtable discussions with industry and government representatives. India’s 100,000 MW solar-target could generate more than one million jobs by 2022, primarily in two key phases of a solar project’s lifecycle: construction and commissioning (806,800, accounting for 72 per cent of new solar jobs), and ongoing operations and maintenance, or O&M (263,400; 23 per cent of new solar jobs). These projections do not include jobs created in the manufacturing sector, another significant jobs opportunity.

But these jobs will not get created automatically. They would have to be matched with requisite skills. Our analysis finds that for both rooftop and utility-scale solar projects, India needs 210,800 skilled plant design and site engineers, 624,600 semi-skilled technicians for construction of solar projects, and 182,400 workers in various low-skilled jobs in operations and maintenance. Another 81,000 skilled personnel are also needed for O&M and about 17,600 for business development.

In order to meet the rising demand for a skilled or semi-skilled workforce, three key areas need urgent attention.

First, ramp up training programmes through Skill India. Solar sector employers find the poor quality of current programmes as the biggest hurdle. They do not meet industry needs and are often not located near solar hubs where they are most needed. High-quality and accessible certification programmes, which reduce the need for and costs of on-site training, are a big opportunity. MNRE’s newly formed Skill Council for Green Jobs should consider these gaps when formulating future training programmes. Under Skill India, renewable energy training clusters could be located near ongoing solar energy projects. At least one prominent solar training institute could be established in each region projected to be a hub for major solar activity (e.g., Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka). In the interim, mobile training courses, where trainers move from one location to another, would add value.

Secondly, focus on semi-skilled jobs in construction, commissioning and operations. Our survey respondents emphasised that some of the skills most challenging to find were not the most technical skills; rather they are basic construction and commissioning skills, including electricians and PV installation technicians. Also, there are greater opportunities in long-term employment via semi-skilled jobs in O&M. Training programmes focused on fundamental construction, commissioning and operations skills should be expanded across the country.

Thirdly, use the new ISA framework to accelerate capacity building. Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President François Hollande laid the foundation stone of the headquarters of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), an initiative that India spearheaded at the Paris climate negotiations in late 2015. The ISA can serve as an excellent platform for skill development. The National Institute of Solar Energy, where the ISA Secretariat will be located initially, has been training professionals, from India and elsewhere, for several years. The ISA could establish certified training programmes, help to build common curricula in close consultation with the private sector, and make the workforce qualified for deployment within India and outside.

Solar energy holds the promise to tackle, in part, several daunting challenges at once by increasing clean energy access, reducing lethal air pollution, and addressing climate change. Creating countrywide employment opportunities, if based on appropriately designed skill building initiatives, would add to the sector’s growing attractiveness.