NAREC, the National Renewable Energy Centre, has provided a first phase of training to Newcastle City Council employees to enable the council to install renewable technologies and systems on their buildings.

Newcastle City Council was the first to utilise Narec’s new Training Centre in Blyth, with nine electricians from the council’s City Works division completing a three-day solar photovoltaic panel installer course.

This training forms part of the ongoing energy master planning work being undertaken by Narec for Newcastle City Council, which will formulate a sustainable energy action plan and a citywide climate change strategy to deliver regeneration across the city.

Narec established its new training centre to address the skills gap for technicians to install, operate and maintain renewable energy systems. The new centre offers a range of courses for the microrenewables and distributed energy sectors including; solar thermal, air and ground source heat pumps and solar PV installer courses.

Allen Jones, project director, Narec, said: “The feed-in tariff (FiT) scheme, introduced by the UK government last year to incentivise small-scale, low-carbon electricity generation can play an important contribution to regeneration in helping local authorities to generate additional revenue, reduce carbon and increase electricity generated from renewables.

“The courses Narec has designed are helping local authorities, organisations, businesses, communities and individuals to take advantage of the opportunity.”

David Hall, head of service for City Build at Newcastle City Council, added: “Narec’s knowledge and expertise in delivering energy master planning and training for the built environment is helping the council to drive forward the delivery of low-carbon energy schemes. This co-ordinates activity across the council, stakeholders and city, helping us to achieve the national and European carbon reduction targets as part of the 2010 EU Covenant of Mayors Agreement.”

The Narec Training Centre will be officially launched on April 13 by Sir Ian Wrigglesworth, deputy chairman of the Government’s Regional Growth Fund Advisory Panel.

A range of new training packages, such as Energy Champions for the Workplace, designed to increase employees’ awareness of energy consumption and efficiencies in the workplace, have also been developed by Narec to meet employers’ needs.