A £280,0000 green energy training centre focused on microgeneration technologies and backed by private business is set to open later this year on Merseyside.
The
Green Energy Training Centre (GETC) is being set up to meet the needs of a growing UK
renewable energy sector, in which the Government estimates 160,000
jobs will be created by 2020. The centre will specialise in training to install
renewable energy microgeneration technologies, which include equipment such as solar panels and photovoltaic and ground and air source heat pumps, found in the home and commercial properties.
The GETC is being part-funded by two Wirral based companies – German owned renewable energy product manufacturer
Stiebel Eltron, which is investing £57,372, and Birkenhead based training provider
Scientiam, which is putting in £100,050. A further £122,275 of public
funding is coming from the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), through the Regional Skills Capital Development Fund
The centre will train installers to fit the latest microgeneration equipment to the standard set by the Government’s Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS). Property owners using MCS-accredited installers can apply for Government grants, which can pay up to half the costs of buying and installing green energy equipment.
"We know the GETC can play a vital role in filling the green energy skills gap," said Stiebel Eltron’s UK managing director Mark McManus. "[…] If we are to meet the UK’s target of 15 per cent of UK energy coming from renewable sources by 2020, there is a desperate need to improve the quantity and calibre of training available specifically in microgeneration technologies. This is precisely what the GETC will focus on."
Scientiam managing director Mandi O’Shea, added that the centre would help the 2000 heating and plumbing businesses in the North West comply with new green building standards. "We know the centre will play a key role in training the next generation of tradesmen to work in the green industry,' she said. "In the teeth of a recession and with youth unemployment at its highest level since records began we need to train young people in a sector where there is a massive jobs demand, and there is committed long-term investment."
Latest Government targets show that by 2020 renewable energy should account for 30 per cent of electricity supply, 12 per cent of heat supply and up to 10 per cent of transport fuel. The Government believes small-scale renewable installations could meet two per cent of the UK's electricity demand by 2020. This month, it launched the
feed-in tariff scheme to encourage additional low carbon electricity generation by organisations, businesses, communities and individuals that are not traditionally engaged in the electricity market.
Construction is set to begin this month on the GETC, which is being
built at Stiebel Eltron’s premises at the Wirral International Business
Park in Bromborough. It is due to open in July.
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Related links:
www.stiebel-eltron.co.uk
www.scientiam.co.uk