Technical Workshop on a Regionally Harmonised Job Task Analysis (JTA) for Solar PV Installers

(English/Portuguese speaking ECOWAS countries and Ivory Coast)
2-3 July 2015
Accra, Ghana

Enabling healthy and robust renewable energy markets, and building on work achieved in the LAC region and Africa, IRENA has continued training quality infrastructure exports, and promoting best practice exchange. In response to the identified shortage of qualified solar PV installers and maintenance technicians in West Africa, IRENA has designed a strategy to assist ECOWAS countries implement harmonized certifications for solar PV installers. The initiative builds on the completed IRENA project “Promoting a Sustainable Market for PV Systems in the ECOWAS Region” (ProSPER), which focused on strengthening local capacities of policy makers, regulators and utilities, financial institutions, educational and research institutions, and renewable energy entrepreneurs and technicians.

This technical workshop kick-started the development of regionally harmonized JTA for solar PV installers, it was organised in cooperation with the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) and the German International Cooperation Agency (GIZ) in July 2015. The workshop formed a preliminary regional technical committee, which has started the review of a first draft of technical guidelines or JTA for West African solar PV installers. Participants included solar PV industry and academia experts and government officials from the certification, normalization and energy sectors. Regional design and guideline validation have to date received wide acceptance, understanding and consensus. A medium-term implementation activity for the establishment of a regional certification scheme for the ECOWAS region was also well received. A regionally harmonized technical guideline is expected to be validated by the end of 2015 following a six month review period.

This workshop is complementary to the one held in April 2015 in Burkina Faso with the rest of the ECOWAS countries (7 UEMOA countries). Identical objectives and results were sought in both workshops, the only difference being the participating countries. By the end of both workshops the 15 ECOWAS countries will continue together and synchronously the development and review process of the technical guidelines.

Eight ECOWAS countries attended the workshop (Cabo Verde, Ghana, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and The Gambia). The participants from each of the countries included: one expert from the solar PV industry, one expert from the education sector, one government representative from the normalisation/accreditation/certification sector, one government representative from the energy/electricity sector.

The agreed format of the review process for the development of the technical guidelines is shown here below, as well as the agreed timeline of activities: