EU solar deployment is growing faster than the installer workforce can be trained. More than 65 GW of PV capacity is being added annually, while installer shortages remain a constraint; in Croatia and the wider CEE/SEE region, many SME installers and EPC contractors face recurring onboarding, upskilling and quality-assurance needs.

Current PV installer training depends heavily on supervised field apprenticeship on live rooftops. This is slow, weather-dependent, hazardous for inexperienced workers and difficult to standardise across varying roof types, equipment, site conditions and national rules. Supervision is intermittent, and there is no repeatable way to verify that technicians apply correct procedures and safety practices once they move into the field.

No commercially available VR training product currently replicates the full PV installation workflow with PV-specific procedural logic, safety enforcement, off-nominal fault scenarios and competency analytics. Vocational training centres, installer networks and industry bodies therefore lack a scalable, auditable tool for preparing technicians before they work on real roofs.

The project will develop SOLACE, a near-market standalone VR simulator for PV installation training and assessment. The system will run on headsets such as Meta Quest 3 and guide technicians through rooftop access, mounting assembly, panel placement, electrical connection and system verification using a PV-specific procedural simulation engine.

The core innovation is the formalisation of tacit installer expertise into structured state-machine logic, including correct sequences, decision points, safety checks, realistic error branches and recovery actions. Unlike generic VR training platforms, SOLACE will encode end-to-end PV workflows, DC electrical and fall-from-height risks, off-nominal field conditions, and consequences linked to incorrect actions.

The simulator will include lightweight physics-plausible interactions for tools, cables, fasteners and panels, optimised for standalone VR hardware. A modular scenario architecture will separate procedural logic, asset libraries and environment templates, allowing new roof types, equipment brands, difficulty levels and national installation contexts to be configured without rewriting the core software.

An integrated analytics module will record trainee actions, tool use, safety-compliance events, procedural accuracy and completion time. These data will be mapped to a PV-specific competency framework, enabling structured feedback, readiness reporting, refresher assessment and auditable quality assurance for companies and training providers.

Suncozor will lead the project, define the PV installation procedures, safety requirements, fault cases and competency criteria, and validate the simulator against real installation practice. AGENDA will design and implement the VR platform architecture, procedural simulation engine, interactive modules, asset pipeline and analytics infrastructure, with additional UE5 and 3D optimisation expertise recruited during the first project phase.

The consortium will create high-fidelity 3D assets for panels, inverters, mounting rails, cabling, tools, PPE and rooftop environments, and optimise them for standalone headsets such as Meta Quest 3. It will develop workflow scenarios covering rooftop access, mounting assembly, panel placement, electrical connection and system verification, including branching error paths and off-nominal cases such as missing components, incorrect step order or cable faults.

The project will build the modular scenario framework and Scenario Extension Guide, then configure at least one additional proof-of-concept scenario reflecting a second national installation context. It will also implement the performance analytics module to capture trainee actions, procedural accuracy, safety-compliance events and task completion time, and translate these into structured readiness reports.

Operational validation will be carried out at Suncozor sites and with 2–3 external pilot partners, including at least one independent PV installer and one vocational or technical training provider. Around 30 trainees will participate in a comparative pilot study of VR-trained and conventionally trained cohorts, assessing procedural accuracy, safety errors and task completion time during supervised field exercises. The partners will document pilot results, refine competency thresholds, prepare the near-market prototype, develop the licensing and pricing model, and collect market feedback and letters of interest for first paid pilots.