Trainee Pascal Odette swings from a sloping tiled roof and installs a solar array under the watchful eye of his trainer.
There are high hopes that soon Ode will be able to install systems in homes and businesses.
Once trained, he will become an indispensable new pair of hands in an industry critical to Germany's energy transition but suffering from severe labor shortages.
Demand for new photovoltaic panels has skyrocketed as Europe's largest economy was forced to increase its share of renewable energy following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, hitting power supplies and pushing up prices.
The conflict has led Germany to end its energy dependence on Russia, and the country has also accelerated its carbon neutrality plan.
Compared to 2021, installed PV capacity in the residential sector increased by 40%.
“After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many people wanted to get rid of fossil fuels and the high cost of energy,” said Wolfgang Grundinger, spokesman for Enpal, one of the many companies capitalizing on rising demand.
The Berlin-based start-up offers long-term rental of solar panels with installation and maintenance.
The formula looks attractive. Enpal, which started operations in 2017, said it had rented out 40,000 kits to individuals, including 18,000 last year alone.
He currently installs 2000 games per month.
“Demand is very high. We need to install many units as quickly as possible, at the same time we see a huge shortage of skilled labor,” says Alexander Friedrich, who the company has hired to train new employees.
To meet the demand, last year Enpal opened its own training school in Blankenfeld, south of Berlin, to train panel installers and electricians for photovoltaic panels.
“We hire people from all walks of life: former pizza chefs, cooks, couriers, taxi drivers,” Grüdinger said.
The company sends about 100 new employees to the school every month.
Among them is Ode (19), who responded to an Instagram ad offering a four-week course.
- 'Something new' -
Learning "something new" pushed him to take on the challenge, he told AFP.
“I really appreciate that this job is about fresh air and that you are always on the go,” he added.
Enpal has no prohibitive education criteria for recruits. But a key requirement is that recruits climb tall stairs that reach at least two stories high to weed out those with a fear of heights.
The sound of drills, screwdrivers, and pieces of metal being worked on by groups of students echoed through the training stable.
Wearing helmets and tied to ropes, the students practiced on chiselled ceilings above the ground.
Your mission is real.
Germany aims to meet 80% of its energy needs with renewable energy by 2030, up from 46% a year ago.
To do this, lawmakers have set a goal of installing 215 gigawatts (GW) of photovoltaic capacity by 2030, tripling the annual installation rate from last year's 7.2 GW.
It is expected to cover the roofs of factories and commercial buildings, as well as fields, according to a bill that supports its installation.
But "a shortage of skilled workers threatens to slow down the energy transition," the Cologne-based think tank of the German Economic Institute (IW) warned in a recent report.
The labor shortage is so great that the BSW Solar Industry Federation has said it is counting on Chancellor Olaf Scholz's ambitious immigration reform to alleviate the situation.
The law, which is expected to be passed this year, aims to mitigate immigration problems.
As an example, BSW cites a recent deal to bring in trained solar professionals from India.
Germany is short of the 216,000 electricians, heating and air conditioning professionals, and information technology professionals needed to develop the solar and wind energy sector, IW estimates.
This figure does not take into account plans to return the production of solar panels to Germany.
- Return production -
According to the International Energy Agency, 80% of panel components currently come from China.
The Asian giant's huge reliance on the supply chain for materials such as polysilicon, wafers, cells and modules has become apparent to Germany after it recently suffered from its reliance on silicon.
Germany was once a leader in the production of photovoltaic systems, and in the 2000s it had such heavyweights in the market as Solarworld, Q-Cells and Centrotherm. After government subsidies dried up and China ramped up production, Germany's market share declined.
About 100,000 jobs have been lost in this sector over the past two decades.
But the trend may start to change.
Swiss industry specialist Meyer Burger built a plant in Thalheim, eastern Germany, in 2021 thanks to lower production costs and growing domestic demand.
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