Solar Training Academy branches in Africa
Academy Partners
All our academies are operated together with a local partner. GREEN Solar Academy PTY Ltd ensures consistently high quality at every branch and develops the trainings in cooperation with the local partners and our international trainers.
South Africa, Cape Town
Since 2005, Life Choices has provided training and services in the field of Family Stability, Health, Education, Leadership Skills and Employment. Life Choices joined the GREEN Solar Academy network in 2019 with the clear objective to not only become the academy partner in Cape Town, but also to build up a solar training programme for the youth together with the GREEN team.
Life Choices has successfully been implementing a training and internship programme of their own in the field of coding. The Coding Academy is aimed at youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds who are taught coding and design thinking, and undergo professional development to prepare them for the working world. They are then assisted to secure internships, many of which turn into offers of full-time employment. The quality of the graduates is so high, that companies return time and again to snap up the next crop of interns.
Their well-established approach has became the blueprint for our joint solar youth training.
South Africa: Johannesburg, Pretoria and Gqeberha
Training at the GREEN Solar Academy Johannesburg, GREEN Solar Academy Pretoria and GREEN Solar Academy Gqeberha is implemented by Grünel Energy. Grünel provides training and facilitation services to the solar PV industry and is focused on providing practicable skills training to electrical professionals and novices alike. They have been partners with GREEN (and before that, maxx-solar) since 2013. They have their own facilities in Wynberg, Sandton and in EcoSquare Centurion, with classrooms and massive practical areas to house the training roofs and various live systems used in our trainings. In PE, the solar training takes place on the campus of Nelson Mandela University.
South Africa, Ballito, KwaZulu Natal
Solarvest started out life 10 years ago. Director Anton Lotriet has been actively involved in solar installations for the past decade.
In 2018 Anton identified a huge gap in the market for reliable solar equipment and after sales support in KZN. Solarvest transitioned into the supply of solar products. Coupled to this was excellent after-sales support and training offered to all their installation clients. The training on offer lacked professional accreditation, and this is where the partnership with the GREEN Solar Academy was established.
Namibia
Young Africa Namibia is an NGO that trains youth as part of an employment programme. Part of their training is a technical education, e.g. in IT, green building, welding or solar installations, as well as life and business skills to promote entrepreneurship.
Since 2017, Young Africa runs our Academy in Namibia and offers training at two different locations: Okahandja and Otjiwarongo. Since 2019, Olivia Namkomba is the director of the Namibian GREEN Solar Academy.
Zimbabwe
Sunergy Zimbabwe is a Zimbabwean solar company. They have two main fields of activity: hardware supply especially for off-grid applications and energy consultancy with expert advice and energy audits. They specialise in off-grid solar systems and have a solid track record of off-grid PV installations.
In 2017, we offered the first trainings together under the name of maxx-solar academy. The head of the GREEN Solar Academy Zimbabwe is Dave Mathews, one of the directors of Sunergy.
Angola
Gomes Rocha Engenharia, Lda. (short GRE) was founded in 2015 by two young and ambitious engineers, Pedro Gomes and Braulio Rocha. They focus on project management and engineering of renewable energy projects, especially solar photovoltaic, with the goal to sustainably improve the situation of the energy market in Angola.
To contribute to the energy transition even more, they decided to also offer training and became an Academy partner in 2019. Now they offer a range of off-grid courses and are both directors of the GREEN Solar Academy Angola.
Togo
KYA-Energy Group was founded in Togo in July 2015. Company headquarters are located in Lomé, Togo with two more branches in Benin and Ghana. Their main field of business is assembling and trading of stand-alone energy systems, especially for household applications and productive applications (SMEs and agricultural applications). KYA has also developed its own products and is an extremely dynamic company in Togo when it comes to mini-grid installation, operation and maintenance. Other business fields are engineering and feasibility studies in the energy sector, training, and research and development.
The GREEN Solar Academy Togo is the first one in francophone Africa and was founded in 2019. It is operated by KYA-Energy Institute, the training arm of KYA. The director is Prof. Dr. Yao Azoumah, who is also the founder and CEO of KYA-Energy Group.
Mozambique
Logos Industries was founded as an electrical distributor in Mozambique in 2003. Today, they are one of the biggest renewable energy companies in the area with 13 branches in seven African countries. Their services include sales, installation, operation & maintenance of solar products and projects.
The company’s overall goal is to make an impact in Africa and promote local development through the right technical and logistic solutions. This goal was the motivation to add education to their activities and become a partner of the GREEN Solar Academy in 2020. Frangilio Nhanal, Project Manager at Logos, is the director of the GREEN Solar Academy Mozambique.
Ghana
GREEN Solar Academy Ghana is managed by Critical Energy Solutions (CES). CES is made up of a team of experts in the energy industry for grid-connected and stand-alone installations, and hybrid connections. CES also has expertise in energy systems analysis, project feasibility study reporting, environmental impact assessment as well as the economics of energy.
Botswana
Shane’D Electricals is a Botswana-based electrical company offering installation, maintenance and repair of Electrical systems, Generators, Security Systems and Solar Systems.
In June 2022, Moses Dube, owner of Shane’D Electricals, became a GREEN Academy Partner. After attendeding GREEN’s 5-day SuperSolarSchool training in Johannesburg, Moses realised that he wanted to be able to offer GREEN’s professional, internationally-accredited short solar courses in his home country. He submitted an application to operate a GREEN Solar Academy and has taken part in GREEN’s extensive Training of Trainer programme, and will gradually be adding to the course options available through his academy as interest in solar installation training in Botswana increases.
Do You Want to Become an Academy Partner?
We always look for partners interested to operate a GREEN Solar Academy in their region or other African countries. Are you interested? Please contact us for more information.