BayWa and GSES partner up to skill up the solar industry

It is natural for any industry that sees the kind of remarkable growth solar has over the last decade to incur quality control issues. As the cost of solar has decreased rapidly and the cost of energy continues to increase, the market grows quicker than controls can omnisciently oversee. 

By recognising the effect of rapid growth, BayWa and Global Sustainable Energy Solutions (GSES) are emphasising the need for solar training to ensure consistency in high-quality design and installation; not to mention the improvement of industry safety and the adoption of new technologies. 

Of course, BayWa and GSES are not the first to notice the out-of-focus edges of the industry. Solar industry community Solar Cutters was started by Kosta Bourandanis and Jack Long in large part to combat poor quality installations. “We want to raise the standard of solar installations within Australia and hopefully one day the world,” Long told pv magazine Australia last year. “This is our major focus,” continued Bourandanis, “and without the trust of the wider community there really is no future for solar. We need to ensure customers feel like they are getting a quality system from an expert every time, and for that reason we need to emphasise the distinction between ‘quality’ solar and ‘crap’ solar.” 

GSES’s Nationally Recognised Solar Training Courses are a pathway to Clean Energy Council (CEC) accreditation, as well as offering Professional Short Courses and a varied selection of other training tools. Earlier this year GSES reached out to BayWa to see if the solar wholesaler would be interested in offering GSES courses on its website. 

BayWa’s Jakob Miller said that the end goal for the partnership is to help its wholesale customers “skill up.” “This would focus on the battery and stand-alone courses in particular,” continued Miller, “and we would provide a discount on related products for those who have completed the training.” 

Educate Yourself 

True education begins when it is no longer viewed as a noun, but as a verb. Indeed, one of the signs of a good education is a willingness to be continuously reeducated. This is doubly true in a rapidly growing and changing industry like solar. 

“Training in the PV sector is very important as we are moving away from a simple solar system to an installation which incorporates multiple energy sources and requires complex energy management capabilities,” said Durmus Yildiz, Managing Director of BayWa. “Electricians and solar retailers need to learn much faster due to changes in technological advancements and regulatory frameworks.”

BayWa and GSES understand this notion and constructed courses, such as the Grid-Connected PV course, as pathways to CEC accreditation and encouraging high-quality product discounts. 

And of course, education goes both ways. Part of the beauty of this partnership is that not only will installers and industry professionals learn from GSES, but GSES will learn from the installation and product quality feedback supplied by its very graduates. “By combining GSES’s high-level training with BayWa’s product knowledge is a complete package for any installer that strives to provide the top quality service and solutions for their customers,” noted Miller. 

Covid-19 Response

Though many of the more stringent lockdown laws are being relaxed in Australia, many of us are still spending the majority of our time at home. GSES was one of the first RTOs to provide online training courses, and as such, its courses are a great option for those looking to skill up before the market picks up again. Moreover, GSES is offering its online courses at a substantial discount in response to Covid-19. 

 “I have admired the team of GSES for many years,” said Yildiz, “as they have supported the industry with valuable advise both to internal and external stakeholders.”