By Burt Price, Executive Vice President, Ameri-Skills Technical Training

One of the greenest opportunities in years is brewing on community college campuses across America.  The U.S.A. has officially embarked on a mission to reduce its addiction to foreign oil and is now investing heavily in building a green economy.  The combination of President Obama’s Renewable Energy Programs along with new federal tax incentives, utility rebate programs, state community outreach programs and pending approvals of feed-in tariffs are creating a golden opportunity for community colleges to harness the power of students seeking clean green energy training courses.

 Federal Renewable Energy Programs

Leading the pack is President Obama who signed a massive $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in February 2009, which provides up to $75 billion in formula-based education grants^[1], $61 billion on building renewable energy related programs^[2], and over $150 billion over the next ten years to create green jobs^[3].

Last October, the federal government also extended a 30% federal tax credit for residential customers and created a 30% tax grant for commercial customers to subsidize the costs of building solar and alternative energy power plants^[4].

 State Regulatory Energy Policies

In addition to federal money, many state regulatory and public utility commissions have passed Renewable Energy Standards that require utility companies to set up budgets for both renewable energy incentive/rebate programs and the community outreach programs needed to market them to the masses.^[5]

 Utility Rebates

Utility companies are required to allocate hundreds of millions of dollars for renewable energy rebates and incentive plans^[6] designed to help residential and commercial customers pay for the installation of their energy efficiency and renewable energy renovations.

 Utility Marketing Programs

Utilities are also required to fund large community outreach marketing programs to educate their customers on how to reduce their electricity usage through demand side management programs and how to increase the production of clean green power from systems that are powered by solar, wind, geothermal and other flavors of alternative energy.

 Economic Development, Feed-in Tariffs and State Marketing Programs

Governors and state legislatures are interested in renewable energy too because they understand the vital importance that these projects hold for stimulating economic development, creating new jobs and, at the same time, reducing the amount of carbon emissions being emitted into the earth’s atmosphere.

For example, Governor Schwarzenegger recently signed California Feed-in Tariff and Net Metering legislation that becomes effective Jan. 1, 2010^[7], which pays homeowners and businesses an above market price for electricity that is generated from solar systems above the amount the use.

Using feed-in tariff programs has made Spain and Germany the largest solar producing nations in the world.  Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington State are currently evaluating the use of feed-in tariffs^[8].  As more states approve feed-in tariffs, investment will pour into these markets and a large number of alternative energy workers will be needed.

To remove other barriers-to-entry, the state of California has launched a very successful www.GoSolarCalifornia.com^[9] marketing campaign, which educates customers on the benefits of installing solar.  The program provides step-by-step instructions and literature for solar advocates on how to petition local government officials to remove the last standing hurdles in the way of rapid of solar deployments such as permit fees and home owner association rules.

 Golden Opportunity for Community Colleges

As the momentum grows for solar and other types of alternative energy programs, more and more residential and commercial customers will make the decision to add green power systems to their homes and buildings.  Unfortunately, the demand from consumers may soon outpace the number of experienced workers needed to build the coming wave of renewable energy projects.

For community colleges that can move quickly, augmenting their curriculum to include solar, wind and geothermal courses will be a sure way to attract students that want to become renewable energy entrepreneurs and green collar engineers.

School administrators that take a “wait-and-see” approach may find that the number of qualified instructors needed to teach classes will be insufficient to meet the marketplace demand.  Accordingly, Community colleges need to work swiftly to find training materials and develop expert “hands-on” training programs that will teach students the right set of skills to perform quality installations.

The good news is there are numerous Workforce Investment Act funding^[10], job training grants^[11], and educational stimulus money available to fund the development of renewable energy training programs^[12] .

 Alternative Energy Job Training Guidelines

One company that can help community colleges meet the demand for alternative energy training programs is Ameri-Skills (www.ameriskillstech).  Ameri-Skills has been working closely with ETA, International to develop a set of Alternative Energy Job Training Guidelines^[13].  These job training guidelines specify a framework of requirements that alternative energy programs need to meet in order for their students to be able to perform well in the alternative energy marketplace.  (www.eta-i.org)

ETA’s staff works closely with school administrators to help them implement Ameri-Skills alternative energy curriculum and streamline installation practices through real world “hands-on” training classes.

 Continuing Education Workforce Programs

Working alone, it may take a community college up to 12-18 months to implement an alternative energy program.  In the meantime, many students in their community simply will not be able to wait to obtain the training they need in order to enter the booming alternative energy business.

Ameri-Skills makes it easy for a community college’s continuing education faculty to provide popular solar PV, solar thermal and wind training programs that can provide students affordable ETA entry-level certifications.

Providing alternative energy workforce training programs is an excellent way for community colleges to become an established leader for renewable energy training in their communities and for school administrators to gain inside knowledge and experience on the renewable energy industry.

Most community colleges will need to begin holding one-week training courses at least once a month.  The classes include four days of classroom training, an ETA Certification Test and eight hours of “hands-on” instruction.  Students that pass the class will receive an entry-level installer certification, which shows prospective employers that they are qualified with sufficient knowledge to begin a career in the renewable energy sector.

ETA has developed more than 50 different training certification programs and has more than 900 certified administrators in the field.  Over the past 31 years they have issued more than 100,000 certifications and have successfully placed students in thousands of businesses, branches of the federal government and the U.S. Armed Forces^[14].

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 Burt Price, Executive Vice President of Ameri-Skills.  Mr. Price manages Ameri-Skills’ business development for the company’s alternative energy training programs for universities, community colleges and vocational schools across North America.  Interested colleges can visit the company’s website or call him directly at (800) 710-7595 to learn more about building an alternative energy training program for their community.

 

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^[1] http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/recovery/index.html

^[2] http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/doe.cfm

^[3] http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/factsheet_energy_speech_080308.pdf

^[4] http://www.dsireusa.org/documents/SummaryMaps/TaxIncentives_Map.ppt

^[5] http://www.dsireusa.org/documents/SummaryMaps/Rebate_map.ppt

^[6] http://www.dsireusa.org/

^[7] http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=11592

^[8] http://www.wind-works.org/FeedLaws/USA/StatesProvincesConsideringFeed-inTariffs.html

^[9] http://www.gosolarcalifornia.org/

^[10] http://www.doleta.gov/USWORKFORCE/

^[11] http://www.doleta.gov/business/Community-BasedJobTrainingGrants.cfm

^[12] http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/recovery/index.html

^[13] http://www.eta-i.org/

^[14] http://www.eta-i.org/ETA%20Companies%20Who.pdf