From Husum to the Cape of Good Hope: First service technicians for South Africa trained by BZEE

The South African government has set a goal of installing 18 GW of renewable energy by the year 2030. Wind energy in particular has been targeted to replace fossil fuels and many wind parks are currently being built throughout the country and the demand for qualified personnel for service and maintenance is increasing rapidly.

Husum-based BZEE (Training Centre for Renewable Energy), in cooperation with bfw Bremerhaven, recently completed the first training course consisting of 11 South African technicians. The 3 month programme leading to the qualification “wind turbine technician” was supported financially by the GIZ and SAGEN (South African German Energy Programme).

The majority of participants already had positions before starting the training at leading companies in the industry which are in the process of stepping up their activities in South Africa such as Nordex Energy South Africa, Eskom Holding SOC, Wind Prospect Africa Ltd and Obelisk Energy.

“This programme was a great achievement, not just for the trainees but for all of us as Eskom guardians and foremost as South Africans;” says Frank Galant, Maintenance manager of Sere Windparks build by Eskom.

“We are definitely looking forward to sending our next group of trainees to your facility and hope to build a good relationship with you in the future.”

“We’re really looking forward to training the next group of African technicians who will arrive in February 2014 in Husum” commented Beate Buhl, BZEE Academy GmbH.