What brands we are working with for our trainings

Technology Partners

It is our mission to train the competent solar installers and engineers of tomorrow. Practical training is not possible from an ivory tower so we keep close contact with the solar industry and introduce as much product variety in our trainings as possible. We teach the participants how to find and select components and how to verify good quality. All brands and companies that we work with support our mission to provide excellent education and help us by sponsoring solar components, sharing their experience or realising networking events with us.

All the companies we work with are carefully selected, they have our trust and we would use their products to build PV systems for our own homes. For mutual support and transparency, we list all sponsors and industry partners here. To get in touch with any of them, please contact us or visit their websites.

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Tino Solutions Ltd.

Tino Solutions is the number one supplier of Solar Energy Systems in West Africa. Established since 2005, Tino Solutions Limited is a leading renewable energy EPC and project management company specialized in the provision of turnkey and tailored solar photovoltaic (PV) power solutions for public, industrial/commercial and residential developments.

Canadian Solar Inc.

Canadian Solar ranks among the most successful PV module manufacturers in the world. They play an essential role in the South African PV market, not only because they have a huge market share also because Wido Schnabel, Canadian Solar’s Head of Strategic Alliances & Business Development for the Middle East and Africa is the chairperson of SAPVIA, the South African PV Industry Association. Canadian Solar supported the GREEN Academy branch in Cape Town with 8 solar modules.

Fronius

Fronius is an Austrian manufacturer active in the fields of welding technology, photovoltaics, and battery charging technology. They are known for their great quality. Their combination of technologies promised much added value for GREEN Solar Academy training, and they sponsored us with an inverter for our training academy in Cape Town. Over the years, Fronius Solar Energy has become much more than just an inverter manufacturer. Under the motto “24 hours of sun”, Fronius is presenting its vision of a future without relying on fossil fuels. This is a completely new energy strategy in which only renewable sources are used to supply the population with power.

IBC Solar South Africa PTY Ltd.

The collaboration between GREEN and IBC Solar South Africa stretches back to the days when we offered our training as maxx-solar academy. When we opened our first Assessment Centre for PV GreenCard in Johannesburg in 2017, IBC (whose main business is the wholesale of PV components) sponsored an SMA inverter, IBC solar modules, and a mounting system. In 2020, we continued the partnership for the setup of our new training venue at Life Choices in Cape Town. Course participants can now practice their installation skills with a flat roof mounting system and modules from IBC Solar South Africa.

JinkoSolar

Milicent Chidamba, the Head of Sales of Jinko Southern Africa is a good friend of ours, we met in 2011 in Germany. We kept the friendship over the years and when we set up the new academy in Cape Town and needed modules, Milicent stepped in and provided us with modules and arranged for Jinko to become a sponsor partner.

JinkoSolar is one of the largest and most innovative solar module manufacturers in the world. JinkoSolar distributes its solar products and sells its solutions and services to a diversified international utility, commercial and residential customer base in China, the United States, South Africa, and other countries and regions. JinkoSolar has built a vertically integrated solar product value chain, with an integrated annual capacity of 22 GW for mono wafers, 11.5 GW for solar cells, and 31 GW for solar modules.

Phocos

Phocos is one of the largest manufacturers of off-grid power system components in the world. Phocos has been developing, designing, and manufacturing solar products since the year 2000 which makes them true experts in the global off-grid market. We got to know Andreas and Alex from Phocos at the Solar Show 2018 and stayed in touch. When Phocos released their AnyGrid hybrid inverter-charger, we liked it immediately and after we tested the AnyGrid in a training installation for a project in Ethiopia, Phocos sponsored another two: one for our Academy in P.E. and one for Johannesburg.

RenewSys

RenewSys India Pvt. Ltd. is the first integrated manufacturer of Solar PV Modules. It is the renewable energy arm of the ENPEE Group, a diversified global conglomerate with 58 years of manufacturing experience. RenewSys puts great emphasis on testing its modules and simulating the environmental conditions a module might encounter to ensure the module performs excellently over its 25+ years of lifetime. We got in touch with Jai and his team in Johannesburg during the Virtual Solar Show in 2020 and noticed very early on that we are on the same page with regards to the quality and training of installers. For the startup of our GREEN branch in P.E., RenewSys provided us with 9 solar modules.

Renusol

Renusol specializes in the manufacture and sales of solar mounting systems for all types of roofs and was founded in 1997. The company manages its businesses in all core markets in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. With more than 20 years’ experience and the delivery of mounting systems for more than 3 Gigawatts to 48 countries, Renusol is one of the key players in the PV industry.

The partnership with GREEN Solar Academy was formed after meeting at Intersolar in Munich. Recognising that we are both quality orientated and that our business approaches fit together, Renusol supplied us with mounting equipment for our Academies in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

SMA Solar Technology

When we started training in Johannesburg, the SMA Sunny Boy and Sunny Island were the first inverters we used in the practical training. Through IBC Solar we also always had a good relationship with SMA but it took until 2021 until we sat down with Managing Director Thorsten Ronge and actually agreed on sponsorship with SMA.
SMA Solar Technology AG (meaning System, Mess, and Anlagentechnik) is a German solar energy equipment supplier founded in 1981 and headquartered in Niestetal, Northern Hesse, Germany. SMA is a producer and manufacturer of solar inverters for photovoltaic systems with grid connection, off-grid power supply, and backup operations.

Valentin Software GmbH

Valentin Software and GREEN share their German origin. Since 2008, Valentin has been supporting the trainings of the German Solar Energy Society DGS in Thuringia and in 2017 GREEN (then as maxx-solar academy) and Valentin also became partners in South Africa. The PV*SOL planning software is an important part of the GREEN training courses and Valentin regularly supplies our training participants with free trial licenses for their software.

Victron Energy

Victron Energy is extremely active in the field of training themselves; they conduct frequent product training for their clients. After a talk with Andre Du Rand, the Area Manager for Southern Africa, about what GREEN Solar Academy offers, he supported our concept of comprehensive training and supplied us with equipment for our Academy in Cape Town. Victron has a vast amount of experience in the PV off-grid and back-up sector and has a significant share in the South African solar market, so it is a great opportunity to use their products for anti-loadshedding solutions.