What you will be able to do
- Design solar-powered sensing and control systems
- monitor energy production and use
- manage batteries and power budgets
- build a pay-as-you-go or monitoring prototype
- maintain systems
Syllabus
- 1 Power budgeting for devices
- 2 Panels, charge controllers and batteries in depth
- 3 Low-power microcontroller design
- 4 Wireless links and gateways
- 5 Energy monitoring dashboards
- 6 Remote switching and metering
- 7 Safety and standards
- 8 Installation practice
- 9 Maintenance and fault diagnosis
- 10 Field deployment capstone
Hands-on practical activities
- Build a solar-powered weather or irrigation station
- design an energy meter with remote reporting
- deploy a system at a partner clinic, school or farm
- maintenance rounds
Resources and equipment
Panels, controllers, batteries, microcontrollers with low-power modes, current sensors, gateways, multimeters, enclosures, weatherproofing materials, PPE
🔋 No power? Off-grid option
Entire course is off-grid by design
Career direction
Energy technician, IoT field engineer, solar monitoring specialist, rural electrification officer, entrepreneur
Why it matters in the market
Pay-as-you-go solar, minigrids and smart agriculture create demand for technicians who combine electronics, data and field skills
Assessment
Field deployment and technical report
Progression
From EX8, TR8 or EX4; stacks with MK4, MK5