ECN’S SOLAR ACADEMY

[BIZ/EDU: Petten, November 7]
The Energy and Research Center of The Netherlands (ECN) and its partner Solland Solar Energy, the Limburg development company LIOF and the Institute of Semiconductor Electronics of the RWTH University Aachen, plan to establish a solar academy in Heerlen, Limburg.

The academy will offer professional training activities for employees in the solar cell manufacturing industry. Solar energy is one of the pillars of a global sustainable-energy supply. The photo-voltaics market has been showing a strong growth of around 40% per year for the past ten years. In 2006, approximately 1,470 Megawatt-peaks were installed with global industry revenues reaching USD 10.6bn in 2006, while capital investment through the PV business chain totaled USD 2.8bn. Future growth rates are expected to remain at comparable levels.

To sustain the strong growth of production capacity in major growth markets, such as Germany, Japan, the US and China, additional skilled staff are needed. However, staff with experience in solar cell manufacturing are hard to find. This represents one of the major bottlenecks to the growth in this sector. For this reason the Solar Academy will be offering practical and theoretical professional modules (courses) for operators, engineers and managers working in the silicon photo-voltaics industry. Training will take place on a state-of-the-art pilot production line with industry compatible equipment. New employees can be trained in practice without interrupting the production process.

ECN has already trained staff for their customers and Mr. Gosse Boxhoorn, CEO of Solland Solar, says that Solland needs hundreds of new employees in the coming years and he is consequently happy that the academy will be able to train them. The Solar Academy will be a separate legal entity and will be located at the Avantis cross-border research and business park, between Heerlen and Aachen. It should be operational in Q1 2009. René Seijben, MD of Avantis, is delighted with the decision of the academy which will further strengthen the solar cluster in the region.
http://www.ecn.nl/