HUMAN RESOURCES FOR PV MARKET GROWTH: A TOOL FOR PV MARKET EXPANSION IN ARGENTINA

Julio A. Bragagnolo, Sebastian Kind, and Walter Legnani Secretaria de Ciencia, Tecnologa y Posgrado, Universidad Tecnolgica Nacional, Buenos Aires, Argentina
ABSTRACT
There is a measure of agreement that the size of the PV market in South America, particularly in Argentina, is far from its potential and that much larger market sizes can be developed if the barriers to the adoption of PV technology can be promptly addressed. While evidence suggests growing Government interest in Renewable Energy and signicant private initiatives in PV industry in San Juan, a privileged area in terms of irradiation, the relatively small size of the human resource pool stands as a major barrier to adoption of PV. In this paper, we describe the eort made by the Universidad Tecnolgica Nacional in Argentina (UTN) to develop an engineering workforce that can translate policy challenges into specic technology-based, Renewable Energy (RE) projects including not only Solar Power, but also Wind Power and Biomass.

PROGRAM AND TEACHING ENVIRONMENT

UTN (www.utn.edu.ar) is a public and tuition-free University. UTN has thirty engineering schools throughout Argentina and is the leading teacher of engineering in Argentina, graduating 60% of the countrys engineers each year. Pioneer in Argentina, a Masters of Science Course in Renewable Energy was created at UTN, starting in March 2010. [3] The goal of this Academic Excellence Program is to develop a new generation of professionals who will contribute to expand renewable energy technology in an emergent area in this expanding industry. The postgraduate degree is designed in such a way that any graduate in the eld of science and engineering can apply. This student base is a major asset in giving the course a strong science and technology base. The teaching proceeds in three steps. The rst semester contains a core of common knowledge in which the students are prepared in skills concerning statistics, thermodynamics, uid mechanics, economic aspects of RE, legal and regulatory norms, and basic meteorology. The next step is composed by a set of lectures in the specic eld of each one of the three specializations selected. This stage is designed to contribute to the formation of the students in the deeper aspects of the RE orientation selected by them. The lectures are supplemented with visits to research laboratories and industries concerning RE as well producing plants of RE. The last step of the program is the elaboration of a research master thesis. To complete this stage, students attend lectures on technology research and thesis project preparation, as well as normative information specic to the UTN and writing style. They contact appropriate thesis directors and secure help in outlining the research topics. An academic board made up of program professors traces the students progress during their thesis work. This work can be done in any laboratory in Argentina (academic or industrial) or in foreign laboratories, preferably those of the visiting professors. Once the thesis work is nished, students must submit their work to a panel of three professors, one of which must be external to the UTN. The intensive courses are planned to teach an appropriate balance between the science and technology of renewable energy and the reality of the worldwide market. As an example of the thoroughness of the curriculum, we cite strong program segments in weather science as well as project development. All courses were taught for three to four hours, ve times per week. The program was launched with the support of key executives in the governmental energy sector, RE industries and associations and academic institutions in Argentina.

PHOTOVOLTAICS
In what follows, we will focus on the PV program. We note, however, that the Solar Energy program included a major segment on high temperature solar power taught by Aldo Steinfeld of ETH Zrich. For the specic teaching of Photovoltaics, we began with a comprehensive view of the current status of the industry. Our discussion of the PV industry included incentives, grid parity, technologies, industry value chain, key products and industry players. Such a discussion is necessary to focus the students on the key business and technology issues in the PV industry. This introduction was followed by a number of lectures on the technical basis of the operation of solar cells and modules. Because they are an important part of PV economics, issues of PV sustainability such as energy payback and emissions were included. Once the basics of PV operation were introduced, a number of lectures on the physics of advanced materials and devices were given by Angus Rockett (University of Illinois). Juan Carlos Jimeno (University of the Basque Country, Spain) and one of us (Julio Bragagnolo) taught a number of lectures on silicon solar cell technology including advanced device analysis and current R&D issues in cell and module manufacturing. Kurt Taretto (University of Neuquen, Argentina) taught a segment on organic and dye sensitized solar cells.

EVALUATION AND RESULTS

The initial results of this course are extremely encouraging. All students are submitting their thesis plans and many, including PV Solar Power students, are exploring business ventures or taking up positions in the RE industry. Of the ten students admitted to the solar segment of the course, three are pursuing a thesis in Photovoltaics. Topics include advanced solar cell testing software and silicon solar cell metallization as well as an analysis of the manufacturing technologies that can be rapidly adopted to facilitate the acceleration of PV technology in Argentina. Among the lessons learned, specically for PV, is the need to improve the consistency between the wide ranging academic background of the students selected and the course syllabus. While the course as taught provided learning opportunities for engineers from all walks of the profession, the specic content of the course needs to be adapted to improve the learning experience. To continue its contribution to expanding the RE and PV markets, UTN is preparing to repeat this initiative and induct the second group of students beginning in 2012. In our attempt to facilitate PV expansion in Argentina we believe that our contribution to development of public policy will be as important as the creation of hands-on engineering professionals for industrial operations. Therefore, for this new, 2012 group, the UTN has reserved several places for government ocials and for professionals from the RE industry. The UTN experience, to our knowledge the rst in Latin America, has resulted in a program with unique characteristics, suited to supply the human resources necessary in this promising area of the world.

STUDENT RECRUITMENT AND TEACHING STAFF

Thirty two students recruited from a pool of four hundred enquiries, of which sixty applicants were interviewed, were granted free tuition to attend a course addressing PV and Thermal Solar Power, as well as Wind Power and Biomass. The prole and academic history of the sixty students interviewed for admission to the course was slanted to engineering: fty had an engineering degree (chemical, mechanical, industrial, electric power, electronics and materials). Other disciplines included architecture, environmental sciences and business. Twenty seven students were graduates of UTN and ten were female. Key criteria for the students selection were their academic and professional credentials and their commitment to work in the RE industry in its academic, industrial, commercial o regulatory areas. All students were required to prove English prociency as the courses were taught in English or Spanish, depending on the teacher. Another requirement for all students was the availability of reasonable amounts of time for the lectures, homework and many other activities that require substantial time commitments. After admission the students selected one of the three branches of the program, Solar Energy, Wind Energy or Biomass. Of the thirty two students admitted, there are thirty engineers, two of which specializing in the environment, one architect, and one business graduate. Eight admitted students are female. With regards to the female UTN population, UTN is known for its eort to promote engineering amongst female students: thirty seven out of eighty nine candidates for a doctorate in engineering are women. The teaching sta consisted of thirty percent of visiting professors coming from major research and development centers in all areas of RE. UTN and other Argentine institutions supplied the remaining teachers in the sta. Visiting professors were invited to teach specic seminars along the program, some during the rst semester (March to July) dedicated to teaching the thirty-strong group about the three technologies, and some during the second semester of 2010 (July to December), where three groups of ten students each were taught focused courses in each chosen specialty.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We acknowledge the invaluable collaboration of Alicia Roman who was key in developing this teaching eort and Constanza Dotta in gathering and analyzing information about the students. Jorge Hilbert organized the Biomass section of the Renewable Energy course and contributed greatly to selecting the students for the solar discipline. We acknowledge all solar teachers, but specically for PV, Angus Rockett, Juan Carlos Jimeno and Kurt Taretto, for their great teaching eort.

PV MARKET IN ARGENTINA, AN OVERVIEW

The Renewable Energy in the Rural Market Project (PERMER), run by the Government of Argentina (Secretariat of Energy) has established a small PV market oriented to the supply of electricity to remote households and rural schools (http:/ /energia.mecon.gov.ar/permer). The project goal is preelectrication rather than the massive supply of electricity planned in the large current international projects. As such, it involves only small systems starting at 100 W capacity. More recently, the Government of Argentina has launched the GENREN program calling for the installation of 898 MW of Renewable Energy [RE] generation [1]. Of these, a small but signicant 20 MW are based on PV technology. The six PV projects selected are to supply PV electricity to the national grid on the basis of 15 year contracts at prices ranging from USD 547 to 598 per MWh, with a weighted average of USD 571 per MWh. Successful building of these projects would multiply the size of the PV market in Argentina approximately by a factor of ten. A 1.2 MW experimental PV generation plant, the largest in Argentina to date, featuring single and multicrystalline silicon and thin lm modules and a monitoring system is under construction in the Province of San Juan, Argentina [2]. This particular event indicates interest from one of the world regions with the highest irradiance values. In this context, the size of the human resource pool aects policy development, the development of regulations aecting PV use, the promotion of PV as a solution to environmental issues, accelerated project development and the establishment of a local manufacturing industry as a major link in the worldwide supply chain.

REFERENCES
[1] Ministerio de Planicacin Federal, Inversin Pblica y Servicios, June 2010, Programa GENREN, Adjudicacin de contratos de Abastecimiento con Fuentes Renovables de Energa, ENARSA, Ocial Site, last access date June 6, 2011. www.enarsa.com.ar/pdf/licitaciones_resultados_adjudicacion_genren.pdf [2] J. C. Poblete Barrios, May 22, 2006, Energa fotovoltaica Cotizaron 5 Empresas. Gioja Participo del Acto, Province of San Juan, Ocial Site. last access date June 6, 2011. www.sanjuan.gov.ar/prensa/archivo/002028.html [3] Maestra en Energas Renovables, UTN, Ocial website, last access date June 6, 2011. www.utn.edu.ar/subsecretarias/posgrado/maestria-e-r.utn