Vocational trainers trained on Renewable energy modules

Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, in collaboration with the United Nations Industrialized Development Organization (UNIDO) recently organized a two-week training on renewable energy module trading for secondary, vocational and higher education institutions.

The activity is under the UNIDO/GEF5 project that recently developed and validated The Gambia renewable energy training modules. The modules were developed to enhance technical capacities and engender a culture of entrepreneurship among Gambian young people, through valuable training programs to increase their knowledge and understanding in areas of production, design, installation, operation and maintenance of renewable energy systems and technologies.

Gabriel Latjor Ndow, trainer and consultant at Beltech said the training is the combination of the outcome enacted from the validation workshop of the training module for renewable energy.

He said the training was specifically for vocational tertiary and higher education, which was solar PV, SOLAR thermal and wind power.

He said one cannot cover solar PV alone in few days talk less of all the three but they have tried to give the trainees the radical construction of the branches as well as some of the applications and demonstrations that they need.

Amadou Baldeh, a representative of GTTI said the training was educative in the field of solar PV, solar thermal and wind power, saying those are the fields that generate green energy for the community.

“People are now trying to get away from fossil fuels to the new type of energy production and solar PV is predominantly one of the best form of energy projection for electricity in Africa where you have abundant solar radiation and installation for the production of electricity,” he said.

Dodou Trawally, executive director of National Environment Agency and Global Environment facility (GEF) focal point in The Gambia said due to scarcity of time, all cannot be dealt with in detail and there might be other things the participants would like to get to know.

Kemo Ceesay, director of energy at the ministry of Petroleum and Energy said the purpose of the project is to increase the knowledge and technical skills on renewable energy, saying in The Gambia, most of the electricity supply is based on fossil fuel which is all imported and not sustainable for the country.