Solar Installer Courses: Promoting employment among vulnerable groups

Solar Installer Courses

Promoting employment among vulnerable groups

Solar installer courses: Light Humanity trained residents of Cañada Real

After the power cut that left thousands of people in the dark in Cañada Real (Madrid) in 2020, Light Humanity organized solar PV and electrical training courses so that residents could install the neighborhood's solar systems themselves and improve their employability. By 2022, two of them had joined the installation team.

  • What it is: solar PV and electrical training courses so that people from vulnerable groups can learn to install and maintain solar systems.
  • Where: in Cañada Real Galiana (Madrid), with residents of Sectors 5 and 6, and at La Casa Nueva, a shelter in Sagunto (Valencia).
  • When: from 2020, as part of Cañada Solar; by May 2021 some residents had already been trained (YouTube).
  • Partners: Cañada Real residents' associations, Solar Crowd and the La Casa Nueva association in Sagunto.
  • Outcome: two residents able to install and commission the systems “in the best technical and safety conditions”, according to Light Humanity on economiasolidaria.org.
  • Afterward: in 2024, García-Calderón said they were still maintaining the installations in Cañada Real (Energías Renovables).
Three men beside solar panel mounts on a rooftop in Cañada Real
Assembling solar panel mounting structures on a rooftop in Cañada Real. Photo: Light Humanity
Participants in the solar PV installation course assemble the aluminum structure for a set of panels
Solar PV installation course for young people from the Madrid Sur corridor (2021). Image: Light Humanity (YouTube)
A trainer explains the electrical panel of a solar system to a group of future installers
A training session for future solar installers; in the background, Eugenio García-Calderón. Photo: Xataka
A group of men listen to an explanation in front of the electrical panel of a solar system
Hands-on training at the solar system's electrical panel at La Casa Nueva (Sagunto). Photo: Light Humanity
Vídeo: Photovoltaic installation course
“Solar PV installation course”: a summary of the course for young people from the Madrid Sur corridor, published on 14 November 2021. Video: Light Humanity (YouTube)

The 2020 power cut left thousands of Cañada Real residents in the dark

Cañada Real Galiana, east of Madrid, began to lose its electricity in October 2020. Light Humanity, the NGO founded by engineer Eugenio García-Calderón Huerta, responded with Cañada Solar, a project launched that December, according to Público.

  • In Sector 6: in 2021, the power cuts affected about 700 families and 1,500 children (Zarabanda).
  • In 2022: more than 5,000 people were affected by the cuts, about 1,800 of them children (economiasolidaria.org).

“Cañada Real was fifteen minutes from my home,” García-Calderón recalled in Xataka. At the time he was bringing solar energy to the Brazilian Amazon with Light of the Amazon.

From hiring companies to training residents: how the solar installation team was born

At first, outside companies did the installations, but their cost and the difficulty of reaching some places led to a change of model, according to Xataka. “We decided to set up a local installation team with residents we have trained,” García-Calderón explained: residents who would know how to “install, maintain and repair this equipment”.

  • The motto: “Only the people save the people.” In 2021, the NGO was training residents “so they can install their own solar panels and help their neighbors” (Goteo).
  • Green jobs: the aim was to train them as solar PV installers, “increasing their employability so they can enter a booming sector” (Light Humanity).
  • A threefold solution: technological (the kits), educational (the installation team) and financial (a fund that guarantees monthly payments for the systems), according to #SeamosLuz.

Solar PV and electrical training courses to install kits that cost 70% less

Residents learned to install Light Humanity's kits, built with panels from old solar plants and reused electric car batteries, which made the materials 70% cheaper (YouTube). “We run solar PV and electrical training courses so that the neighborhood can take part in the installation,” the NGO explained on its website.

  • What gets installed: panel, inverter, reused electric car battery, protection devices and wiring (Goteo).
  • Three teams: the 2021 campaign set out to train three teams of residents to install “safely and effectively”.
Two rows of solar panels on a rooftop in Cañada Real, Madrid
Solar panels on a rooftop in Cañada Real (Madrid). Photo: Light Humanity
A home in Cañada Real with a row of solar panels on the roof
A home in Cañada Real with solar panels. Photo: Light Humanity

Two Goteo campaigns raised funds for kits, guarantees and installer training

Both crowdfunding campaigns included installer training in their budgets: “Only the people save the people”, in 2021, and #SeamosLuz for Cañada Real, with Solar Crowd, in 2022.

  • 2021: €11,300 from 160 co-funders; the campaign was funded on 14 August, with a minimum of €8,200.
  • 2022: €17,606 from 119 co-funders, 143% of the minimum (€12,300); it was funded on 9 July, short of the optimum (€24,100).
  • Budgeted courses: #SeamosLuz set aside €1,800 of its minimum for a new hands-on course for one resident; another €1,800 course, for two residents, depended on the optimum, which was not reached.

Two residents of Sectors 5 and 6, trained as solar PV installers

In April 2022, Light Humanity took stock on economiasolidaria.org: “We trained 2 residents as solar PV installers who are now able to install and commission the systems.”

  • One per sector: one person from Sector 5 and another from Sector 6 handled the installation, “which means creating jobs for residents” (El Salto).
“It would be useful for my future; it's clean energy. On a personal level it has changed me completely, because I've entered a world I knew nothing about before” — One of the residents trained as an installer (Xataka)

37 solar systems in 2022 and about 400 people with energy in 2024

  • 2022: 37 solar PV systems in Cañada Real, providing energy for about 260 people (Goteo).
  • 2024: about 100 families, about 400 people. García-Calderón summed up the method: “training the neighborhood's electricians so that they could install the solar panels for their neighbors themselves” (Energías Renovables).

From Cañada Real to Sagunto: hands-on training for the residents of La Casa Nueva

Light Humanity took the same formula to La Casa Nueva, a solidarity shelter in Sagunto (Valencia) housing about 50 migrants. There it offered “the hands-on training needed for the residents themselves to maintain the solar system” (Light Humanity).

  • Already done by February 2022: the solar system with batteries and basic training to take part in its installation and maintenance.
  • The plan: a grant, work placements and a four-week solar PV installer course for a group of residents.
  • The horizon: for those trained to start businesses in their home countries, “bringing light to areas without electricity”.
Courtyard of the La Casa Nueva shelter in Sagunto, with parked cars and farmland behind
La Casa Nueva, the solidarity shelter in Sagunto (Valencia) where Light Humanity installed a solar system and trained residents. Photo: Light Humanity
Solar panels on the roofs of the La Casa Nueva shelter in Sagunto, seen from above
Solar panels at the La Casa Nueva shelter in Sagunto (Valencia). Photo: Light Humanity

A solar PV installation course for young people from the Madrid Sur corridor

In November 2021, Light Humanity published on YouTube a summary of a “Solar PV installation course for young people from the Madrid Sur corridor”, with outdoor practice assembling mounting structures.

  • Two days in Fresnedillas de la Oliva: in 2022, #SeamosLuz offered anyone contributing €280, as a reward, an in-person solar PV installation course with hands-on practice in this village near Madrid.
  • In vocational training: in April 2022, the FUHEM Hipatia school (Rivas-Vaciamadrid) wanted to organize solar panel installation workshops with Light Humanity for its vocational training students (El Salto).

Green jobs: installer training, a permanent feature of Light Humanity's projects

“Our projects include a training component in which we qualify these people to become solar panel installers,” the NGO summed up on its job training page.

  • No handouts: United Way España highlighted that Cañada Solar “provides a vocational training component focused on renewable energy” (United Way Spain).
  • Built to be replicated: Light Humanity wanted to create the technical, economic and social tools to repeat the project elsewhere in Spain where the situation was similar (Light Humanity).

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