The unfulfilled solar promise of India and Germany

Mehreen Amin is studying in the fourth semester at the Government Degree College for Women in Zakura, Srinagar. Ms. Amin recently completed an intensive solar technical programme through a Kashmir-based training institute registered with the Skill Council for Green Jobs (SCGJ). When the institute was initially mobilising students in her community, she felt an instinctive urge to enrol.

“I wasn’t thinking about career benefits or the future of solar energy back then; my only interest was a hands-on desire to learn how to install the panels,” Ms. Amin recalls. “But now, I realise we will all need these skills in the future. I want to know exactly how to handle and operate this equipment myself.”

Ms. Amin’s training is part of the training of thousands of students and professionals to become “Suryamitras,” or certified solar photovoltaic (PV) technicians. This is a three-month-long programme from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, conducted by the National Institute of Solar Energy, to promote job creation in India’s solar industry.

Back in 2023, some of the Suryamitras were also considered potential candidates for working in the German solar industry.

Within a month of former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit to India in February 2023, the Bundesverband Solarwirtschaft (BSW), or the German Solar Industry Association, and the SCGJ signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote skilled worker migration in the solar sector between India and Germany.

BSW is a trade body representing over 1,000 companies in the solar energy and battery storage sector in Germany. The SCGJ is a non-profit, autonomous, industry-led organisation associated with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

As per the MoU, the promise was to place at least 20 Indian Suryamitra electricians in Germany’s solar sector. Another objective was to promote skilled workers exchange to help address and accelerate skilled worker migration in solar between the two countries. By conservative estimates, Germany is facing a shortage of over 1,00,000 workers in the solar sector.

Three years since that MoU was signed, not a single Indian Suryamitra has migrated to Germany.

This is not the first time an official Indo-German agreement promising the transfer of skilled labour has failed to materialise. Two years earlier, the State of Maharashtra and the German State of Baden-Württemberg had signed an agreement on the transfer of skilled labour, promising to send 10,000 skilled workers in 34 trades from the Indian State to Germany. By December 2025, reports confirmed that not a single professional had migrated under the agreement.

Big promises

The BSW-Solar and SCGJ agreement repeats a pattern where not a single skilled professional migrated from India to Germany. It was during Chancellor Scholz’s 2023 visit to India that Germany increased its cap on professional visas for Indian professionals from 20,000 to 90,000.

According to a 2025 study by the German Economic Institute (IW), around 32,800 Indian professionals work in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields, a nine-fold increase since 2012.

A third of full-time Indian workers aged 25 to 44 are employed in the STEM sector. But the picture isn’t as rosy for non-STEM sectors, especially in areas where vocational training is a must — such as the solar industry.

“Our understanding is that the primary objective of this initiative was to support domestic workforce training and skills development within India to meet the needs of its booming local market, rather than facilitating international placements,” noted David Wedepohl, managing director of International Affairs at BSW Solar and also a signatory of the MoU.

As per BSW Solar, they were not operationally involved in the training programme.

The signatory from the SCGJ, Arpit Sharma, noted that the Suryamitras were already trained under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy scheme, and that the idea of the partnership was to upskill them in German technical standards and provide German-language courses.

“Unfortunately, no candidates were upskilled during the tenure, and no funds were provided to the SCGJ for any task,” noted Mr. Sharma.

According to Mr. Wedepohl, throughout the entire solar value chain, there is a particular demand for skilled workers in building electrical systems, such as DC assembly, AC installation, PV planning and construction management for the PV sector.

According to a 2024 study by the Bertelsmann Foundation, only 18% of companies were actively recruiting workers from abroad, even though 70% were facing a worker shortage.

The reason — language and bureaucratic hurdles such as recognition of professional qualifications. In vocational fields, German companies are strict about on-the-job practical knowledge.

As per Mr. Wedepohl, “The aim was to identify the already trained Suryamitras, which were supported by the National Institute of Solar Energy and if needed, upskill them to German standards.”

Jana Fingerhut, Senior Project Manager (Sustainable Social Market Economy) at Bertelsmann Foundation, notes that German companies are strict about the accreditation of certain professions in addition to language proficiency.

“The accreditation process can cause delays. The government is also cutting down on language and integration courses, which makes it even harder for many qualified people to enter the German job market. We hope that changes in the future,” noted Ms. Fingerhut.

Mr. Sharma noted that a list of 30 Suryamitras was shared with BSW Solar. “The candidates couldn’t make it through the upskilling programme as the German migration laws changed,” said Mr. Sharma.

Speaking to various other students, such as Ms. Amin, it also emerged that many trainees are not enrolling with the objective of building careers in the solar sector. Some trainees said they enrolled for the stipend associated with the programme, while others did it while being engaged in a different occupation.

It emerged that institutes are assigned enrolment targets but receive little guidance on how to identify or recruit candidates genuinely interested in green-sector jobs. As a result, the emphasis often shifts from attracting motivated trainees to simply filling seats.

Structural roadblocks

One thing both sides agree on is the changes to migration frameworks on the German side that further complicated matters.

“When the partnership was originally formed, labour shortages and market conditions in Germany differed from today. The German market grew by roughly 100% between 2022 and 2023. The cooperation provided a valuable opportunity to better understand the Indian solar sector and to explore whether labour mobility between the two countries could be feasible in the future,” said Mr. Wedepohl.

According to a 2026 report from the Bertelsmann Foundation, the number of people employed in Germany’s renewable energy sector reached a record high of 4,36,000 in 2025, a sub-4% increase over 2023. The report notes that the current federal government’s energy policy changes could put thousands of jobs in the sector at risk.

“The previous government placed a strong emphasis on expanding renewable energy and implemented this through new, ambitious expansion targets and faster approval procedures for renewable energy installations. Under the current federal government, a political shift appears to be emerging that could slow down the expansion of renewable energy. However, this is not yet 100% certain, as four energy-sector laws are currently being developed. The initial draft laws, however, suggest that they could lead to lower investment in renewable energy and, as a result, a reduction in jobs,” said Ms. Fingerhut.

In March 2026, Germany’s Economy Minister, Katherina Reiche, discontinued state subsidies for rooftop solar installations up to 25 kW, citing a drop in photovoltaic prices.

“This cut would mean that fewer people have an incentive to install solar panels, which could have a negative impact on investment and, in turn, on employment in the solar industry,” noted Ms. Fingerhut.

At the moment, the BSW and SCGJ partnership focuses on ongoing discussions around skill development for manufacturing and industrial workers across the solar value chain.

“Continued cooperation between governments, industry stakeholders, and training institutions remains important to align qualifications with actual labour market needs,” said Mr. Wedepohl.

(This article is part of the India-Germany Climate and Energy Journalism Programme organised by Clean Energy Wire, supported by Heinrich Böll Stiftung)