The photo-voltaic mini-plant is intended for the trade testing of solar PV installers. The plant has 5 ground-mounted arrays of high efficiency bi-facial monocrystal modules. Four of the five arrays, each have five modules with individual maximum power output of 575 watts and each of this array has a combined maximum power output of 2.85kw. In total, the overall power output for these four arrays is 11.5kW. All the four arrays are connected to grid-tied inverters. The fifth array is standalone with 4 modules and battery storage with an output power of 2.3kW. The mounting structures includes aluminium and steel frames.

The Minister of Labour and Social Security Hon Phila Buthelezi has officially received the Solar Photo-voltaic (PV) mini-plant from the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan). The Republic of China (Taiwan) was represented by the ambassador His Excellency Mr. Jeremy Liang. Present at the handover ceremony were representatives from the Ministry of Education and Training, Parliamentary Portfolio Committees, industry representatives and the media.

In his remarks, the Honourable Minister of Labour and Social Security appreciated the equipment and thanked the government of the Republic of Taiwan for supporting the DIVT in developing qualifications, apprenticeship training guidelines and further supporting trade testing. He also highlighted that the government of Taiwan, through the TVET Project has in this year funded trade test for 229 Emaswati in Grade III electrical wireman trade tests. Moreover, he thanked the people of Taiwan and their government for the approval of phase 2 of the TVET project and expressed that it is great news for Emaswati as it will ignite exciting prospects of skills development.

The equipment donated at the DIVT comprised of set of tool boxes (15) for solar PV installation and maintenance, a stockpile of consumables like cables, couplers, connectors etc and the stockpile may last over 2 years. The Minister has assured the Ambassador that the DIVT will ensure that they conduct a Solar PV installation trade test before the end of the year. This will be good news to the Eswatini Electricity Company as its engineers had grave concerns about the quality and integrity of some solar PV installations that they had encountered. They are very concerned that unqualified installers may buy inverters that are non-compliant to their grid and that the consumers would have challenges claiming insurance should their PV modules get damaged due to bad connection or natural disaster.

The handover ceremony for the DIVT Solar Mini-plant was combined with handover for equipment at the automotive department at Gwamile VOCTIM and mechanical equipment at the Eswatini College of Technology. The Minister Hon. Phila Buthelezi proposed an MOU that will ensure access to trade testing in colleges within the Ministry of Education and Training. The equipment handed over was worth USD $ 174, 000 for the DIVT solar plant, US $ 116, 530 for the mechanical department and US $ 55,575 for automotive department. The above mentioned figures excludes the shipment and installation costs.