The National Energy Secretariat of Panama (SNE) has announced the beginning of a training course for 25 women from the Ngäbe Buglé region, in the west of the country, to learn how to install and maintain photovoltaic systems that will provide energy to their homes and communities.

The course consists of 280 hours, with completion scheduled for next November 11. The three teaching modules include the topics Electricity and Solar energy; Installation of Solar systems; and Preventive and corrective maintenance of Solar systems.

Participants will receive kits of tools and materials necessary to install photovoltaic systems. The development of the classes will be given to the participants in Spanish and in its Ngäbere dialect.

The creation of this training of Rural Solar Installers is part of the Energy Transition Agenda 2020-2030, presented in 2020, specifically with line of action 19, “Community empowerment for the management of energy supply systems”, and with the 20, “Nexo Mujer y Energía”, part of the fifth strategic axis “Education and empowerment of the community for universal access to energy.”

The training program aims to train women in the Ngäbe Buglé region, where access to electrical energy is only around 4%.

They are looking for women in areas that do not have access to electricity, aged between 18 and 55 years, with a low level of schooling, illiteracy or semi-illiteracy, who are in a situation of poverty and who are in good health.