Annual Report 2025
Pursuing a Role in Solar PV
It is no secret that we have built a strong and scalable framework for increasing tech- nician safety and capabilities in the wind industry since we published the first version of the BST standard in 2012. Wind and solar are the two fastest and most cost-effective technologies in the renewables mix. With both industries facing similar challenges from the growing global demand for a skilled workforce to deliver the energy tran- sition, the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with GSC in 2024 laid the foundation for leveraging this success. In 2025, we co-launched our solar partner- ship with GSC formally at the GWO Forum, released the first two Global Solar Training Standards and formed the Solar Training Committee. By the Industry, For the Industry The solar initiative emerged from a member need, as an increasing number of our mem- bers were finding themselves operating across multiple renewables industries, and had a shared aim to improve safety and effi- ciency. GSC had further observed inefficien- cies across the industry, with variation in quality from one developer or contractor to
another. Many also experienced operation- al and quality-of-build issues after the solar farms had been built that could have been avoided with training prior to construction. It was with this challenge, our proven frame- work and our strong network in mind, that we joined forces with GSC.
ternational Solar Energy Society (ISES) ap- plied our approach to the development of solar training products. The first pilots of the Global Solar Training Standards took place in April 2025, uncov- ering a potential to break down barriers be- tween wind and solar training. These pilots at Pearce Renewables’ training facility in Dallas, Texas, USA and Maersk Training, UK, emerged from extensive analysis and dia- logue from within the solar working group. This group included expert training provid- er perspectives from Maersk Training, Total HSE, 3T, Pearce Renewables and ASL, sup- porting the finalising of the standards. Dur- ing this piloting phase, stakeholders from the steering group saw how these stand- ards could create a unique opportunity for integrated skills standardisation across re- newables, ensuring a safe and flexible work- force, alleviating bottlenecks and signifi- cantly increasing the number of technicians trained to deliver the energy transition. The Solar Safety Training (S-ST) and Solar Technical Training (S-TT) Standards were brought to the global market in July 2025.
Mirroring the rigorous quality and adoption framework governed by the Wind Training Committee, the Solar Training Committee was established in August 2025, shortly after appointing Dennis Elsberg, Vice President of HSQE and Competence Management Global Services at RES. Since the Solar Training Committee was of- ficially launched, its members have been essential in providing subject matter exper- tise to support the launch of future Global Solar Training Standards Initiatives. They will also play a critical role as industry lead- ers and ambassadors, helping to encourage adoption and recognition.
From Member-Identified Challenge to GSC & GWO- Designed Solution
Armed with a thorough analysis of the simi- larities and differences between the wind and solar industries, we devised a roadmap with GSC for standards development, in- cluding a package of standardised training modules which comprised learning objec- tives covering the most common work pro- cesses and addressed hazards and risks en- countered by utility-scale solar PV technicians. The first steering and working group meetings took place in 2025 during which subject matter experts from Huawei, ARMSA Academy, Solar Power Europe, Ac- ciona, American Clean Power (ACP) Avan- grid, BayWa r.e., EDP Renewables, NSEFI - National Solar Energy Federation of India, Malaysian Photovoltaic Industry Association (MPIA), Solar Energy UK, Ørsted and the In-
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