SA needs technical skills in energy

Few women in renewable sector

ALTHOUGH renewable energy such as wind power has the ability to transform the energy sector in South Africa, more people need to be trained in technical jobs, such as wind turbine technicians, particularly women.

This message emerged from a panel discussion during the final day of this year’s Windaba conference, which ended at the Cape Town International Convention Centre yesterday.

One of yesterday’s breakaway panel discussions, entitled The Transition, moderated by Masechaba Mabilu, a board member at the South African Wind Energy Association (Sawea), looked at some of the challenges facing the industry, such as skills shortages.

Panelists included Lusanda Tshwete, manager for people and culture at Nordex Acciona Windpower South Africa; Tsholofelo Mokotedi, acting executive for planning, reporting and monitoring at the Energy and Water Sector Education and Training Authority (Ewseta); Naim Rassool, director at the South African Renewable Energy Technology Centre (Saretec) and Sean Gibson, managing director for AltGen Consulting and the South African Wind Energy Programme (Sawep).

Gibson said there were only 250 wind turbine technicians currently working on South Africa’s wind farms.

“It brings perspective to our constituency, those are our people and in a large respect is what the industry has pushed in terms of job creation on operations that matter. This is the start of a 20-year programme and the turbine technicians are a significant portion of the number of employees in the OEM (original equipment manufacturers) space, somewhere around about half.”

He said this equates to about one technician to two staff members in other positions if you look at some of the other services.

“That is not a lot, it is not a significant number and I don’t think job creation is a platform to sell the industry. We do create some jobs but it is not a job-intensive industry.”

OUT OF THE 250 TURBINE TECHNICIANS IN THE COUNTRY, ONLY SEVEN WERE WOMEN