Saretec celebrates graduation of newly certified wind turbine service technicians

A recent virtual event celebrated the graduation and subsequent employment of the fifth group of certified wind turbine service technicians (WTST) trained by South African Renewable Energy Technology Centre (Saretec), hosted at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) in Cape Town.

18 Dec 2020

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The event, Bolstering SA Energy: Saretec-trained wind turbine service technicians enter the marketplace, placed the spotlight on the importance of skills development within the country’s renewable energy sector.

Highlighting the critical need for WTSTs in the coming years, Ntombifuthi Ntuli, CEO of the South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA), said to meet the goal of the Integrated Resource Plan of 2019 (IRP 2019) which aims to deploy 1.6GW of new wind capacity yearly from 2022 onwards, 192 new WTST will have to be trained on an annual basis to match the deployment schedule.

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Dr David Phaho, deputy vice-chancellor: research, technology, innovation and partnerships at CPUT, indicated that Saretec will be training 135 technicians in the coming three years and selection for WTST group 7 is already under way.

The virtual event featured addresses by:

Dr Ayodele Odusola, resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP);
Dr Diane Parker, deputy director-general, University Education at the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET);
Nomawethu Qase, director: renewable energy at the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE);
Professor Chris Nhlapo, vice-chancellor of CPUT;
Dr David Phaho, deputy vice-chancellor: research, technology, innovation and partnerships at CPUT;
Ntombifuthi Ntuli, CEO of SAWEA;
Angelina Mohanpersadh, economic development manager of Goldwind; and
Henk Volschenk, training supervisor at Saretec.

Watch the full Bolstering SA Energy: Saretec-trained wind turbine technicians enter the marketplace virtual event: