Winrock, TESDA to set training and competency standards for local photovoltaic technicians

The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Regions ARMM, 9, and 12 recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the non-profit organization Winrock International for the development of training and competency standards for local photovoltaic (PV) technicians. This is a step towards the lifelong dream of the solar PV industry of having an institutionalized training program for PV Technicians. Winrock's Solar Energy for Rural Electrification and Development (SERED) project with SunPower Corporation (which has a 75-Mw solar cell manufacturing facility in Laguna) and the U.S. Agency for International Development is developing the market for solar photovoltaic energy (energy from the sun) in the country particularly to energize remote villages that could not be connected to the power grid. More than 200 such barangays have already been electrified with stand-alone PV systems in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and other remote, conflict-affected villages in Mindanao, the least electrified area in the country, by SERED's sister program, the Alliance for Mindanao Off-grid Renewable Energy or AMORE Program, a partnership of USAID, Mirant Philippines Foundation, the Department of Energy, the ARMM, and Winrock. Shown signing the MOU are (2nd and 3rd from left) TESDA-ARMM Regional Director Omar Shariff L.Jaafar and Winrock's Chris Kopp, with (extreme left and right) Charles Gay, Chairman of SunPower's Advisory Board, and Daniel Moore, Chief of USAID/Philippines' Office of Energy and Environment, signing as witnesses.