FMs need greater technical understanding as commercial solar deployment accelerates
GTEC has opened commercial solar PV training to the client side, not just the installer. The training provider says better understanding among those specifying, procuring and managing commercial solar will be critical as the UK pushes towards 45–47GW of capacity by 2030.
Renewable energy training provider GTEC has confirmed the continued rollout of its two-day Commercial Solar PV Training Course across its North Yorkshire and Nottingham centres, with a structure that departs from the industry norm by assessing technical and non-technical candidates from the same body of training.
The course, endorsed by LCL Awards, offers two assessment routes. Qualified electricians and installers holding a current 18th Edition Wiring Regulations qualification and a Level 3 Electrotechnical qualification (S/NVQ) or equivalent complete a technical assessment.
The second route designed for Facilities and building managers, energy consultants, commercial developers, public infrastructure managers, private equity investors and commercial building insurers complete a knowledge-based assessment, for which there are no prerequisites.
Both groups cover the same material across two days in centre: project planning, design and array layout; solar software and performance modelling; inverter selection and system optimisation; build pack and specification documentation; health and safety protocols; and monitoring and maintenance.
The approach responds to a structural feature of commercial solar that domestic training does not address. Commercial rooftop projects are specified, funded, insured and managed by people who do not install them, and the quality of those decisions has a direct effect on system performance across an asset life measured in decades.
The government’s Solar Roadmap targets 45 to 47GW of installed solar capacity by 2030, against a little over 20GW installed in 2025, requiring approximately 6GW of deployment a year for the rest of the decade. The roadmap sets out eleven actions on workforce development and warns of skilled labour shortages and skills gaps in a sector expanding by up to 17 per cent annually. Solar sector employment is projected to reach around 35,000 jobs by 2030, close to twice the current figure.
Griff Thomas, Executive Director of Energy Transition and External Affairs at United Infrastructure, the parent company of GTEC, said: “There’s a huge demand in the UK for solar installations and that is rising due to the increasing energy costs that we are all facing, from small commercial buildings and schools through to critical national infrastructure that we deliver across United Infrastructure including water treatment, telecoms, gas transmission and of course data centres understandably a lot of focus on whether we have enough people to install solar, but that’s only one part of the skills challenge.
“Commercial projects involve a much wider group of people making decisions about what gets installed, what performance they should expect and how those systems will be managed over the next 20 or 30 years. You don’t need to turn a facilities manager or an energy consultant into an electrician.
“But our experience is that giving them enough technical understanding to challenge a specification, ask the right questions and recognise when something doesn’t look right can make a real difference to the outcome of a project.
“If we are serious about the scale of solar deployment being targeted in the UK, we need to build knowledge across the whole chain – from the people making the investment decision through to those designing, installing, and maintaining the system.”
The Commercial Solar PV Training Course progresses into GTEC’s battery storage, EV charging and advanced design software training, reflecting the increasing frequency with which commercial tenders bundle generation, storage, charging infrastructure and maintenance provision into a single package.