Saretec — the South African Renewable Energy Technology Centre at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) in Bellville, Cape Town — is already receiving considerable financial and technical support from the German government and others.

But when Germany’s Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck — who is also federal minister for economic affairs and climate action — visited Saretec on Tuesday at the head of a team of 40 business leaders and other stakeholders, CPUT vice chancellor Chris Nhlapo and Saretec director Mokgadi Modise made it clear that they needed even more support to expand the training of technicians in wind, solar and other renewable power sources.

Nhlapo said Germany had supported Saretec since its inception a decade ago with training, skills and finance, mainly through the German state development agency GIZ and state development bank KFW.

The South African Renewable Energy Technology Centre in Bellville. (Photo: Supplied)

Germany had been ahead of the game, he said, noting that Saretec, with German assistance, was now partnering with Eskom in reskilling and upskilling workers from decommissioned coal-fired power stations, starting with Komati in Mpumalanga, with two more expected to follow soon.

Modise told Habeck that without Saretec providing the necessary skills, it would be difficult for South Africa to achieve its Just Energy Transition, which requires not only that South Africa wean itself off its current dependency on coal for some 80% of its electricity generation, but also that, in the process, the country preserve the livelihoods of coal workers and their communities.

Germany, with France, the UK, the US and the European Union, last year pledged $8.5-billion to help finance South Africa’s Just Energy Transition.

Germany’s support of Saretec began well before that, but Nhlapo told Daily Maverick that Saretec was to receive about €10-million of the $8.5-billion from KFW to finance the building of a wind turbine tower and rooftop solar panels and storage batteries that would help the institution avoid rolling blackouts, as well as provide a realistic training environment for its students.

Modise told Habeck that Saretec’s annual intake of students was between 150 and 200 for its shorter courses, but below 30 for its longer and more intensive seven-month course which provided higher skills such as those required by wind turbine service technicians. 

She suggested, in a later interview with German TV, that the constraints on training renewable energy technicians were also slowing South Africa’s conversion to renewable energy.

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Modise noted that most of Saretec’s graduates were spread across the globe because Saretec was internationally accredited, so its students were easy to recruit.

She told Habeck that Saretec was also training many renewable energy technicians from across the continent — 45 students would soon be arriving from Namibia — which Habeck had just visited. Habeck told Modise that 45 technicians would not be enough to meet Namibia’s needs.

Modise agreed, saying the only constraint on Saretec’s ability to train more technicians was the lack of infrastructure, particularly the need for more workshops and laboratories, as the institute placed a lot of emphasis on practical training.

“The expansion of the infrastructure is necessary to serve the continent. We would definitely require support in that context to expand the infrastructure, so if we need to take 100 or more students (on a long course) at one go, we can do that.”

Asked if he believed Germany’s aid money was well spent at Saretec, Habeck said it was not so much about money being well spent, as it was about Saretec being provided with a wonderful opportunity for countries like Germany to invest in renewable energy in countries that were on the right path.

Trainee wind turbine service technician Amanda Shayi in the workshop at Saretec in Bellville with a nacelle, part of the wind turbine equipment she is learning to maintain. (Photo: Peter Fabricius)

Amanda Shayi, previously an Eskom electrical technician who is completing the seven-month Saretec course to upgrade to becoming a wind turbine service technician, enthused about the course. She noted that her expertise had previously been in wiring and maintaining the continuity of power.

“When I got here, I was paired up with a rigger. That opened up my eyes to a new environment altogether.” That being a rather scary environment of working at height, often in the wind, lifting huge wind turbines on to towers — which rise to 150m — and learning new skills such as bolting and understanding the mechanics of the turbine equipment.

At that height you’ve got to control your emotions and trust that nothing is going to happen: “I trust the equipment. I trust the person I’m working with.”

Shayi has completed the first five months of the course in the Saretec workshops and is now doing in-service training at the Acciona wind farm north of Cape Town.

“It’s lovely. I love it. I cannot lie.” DM