The Odisha government will establish a green energy centre of excellence (CoE) at the World Skill Centre (WSC) in Bhubaneswar to train young people in solar power technologies and develop a skilled workforce for the state’s expanding renewable energy sector. The WSC and Odisha Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC) have signed a memorandum of understanding for the Rs. 14.8 mn project. OHPC will fund the facility through its corporate social responsibility initiative, with the CoE planned across around 3,000 sq ft at Kausal Bhawan. The centre will provide practical training in rooftop, floating and solar-tracker systems. Its courses will also cover programmable logic controllers (PLC), supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), the Internet of Things (IoT), remote monitoring and energy management. Around 300 youths will be trained each year for roles including solar technicians, operations and maintenance technicians, site supervisors and energy auditors. Candidates from across Odisha will be eligible, while the programme will focus on increasing women’s participation and promoting local entrepreneurship. Deputy chief minister and Energy minister Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo attended the MoU-signing ceremony with Skill Development and Technical Education minister Sampad Chandra Swain. Singh Deo said the initiative would give selected youth from OHPC’s operational districts access to advanced green-energy training and improve their prospects in employment, entrepreneurship and self-employment. He also announced that the number of students receiving fully sponsored training at the WSC would rise from 60 to 100. Singh Deo proposed new WSC branches at Berhampur and Sambalpur, with support from the Energy department. Swain described the solar centre as an important step towards expanding clean-energy and sustainable employment opportunities. WSC chief executive officer Rashmi Ranjan Mohapatra said the partnership would help create the workforce needed by the energy sector. Senior officials from the Energy, Skill Development and Technical Education departments and OHPC attended the signing.