Energy

WorkForceWV receives $6 million green grant for workforce training

25 January 2010

WorkForceWV has received a $6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to support the State’s efforts to provide green jobs education and training. The grant will support four major activities:

Green training for current, future and unemployed workers in building, construction, retrofitting, and installation occupations;
The development of a new community and technical college GREEN-UP certificate program, the new wind energy technology program at Eastern West Virginia Community and Technical College, and new water and wastewater treatment programs at Marshall Community and Technical College;
The development and implementation of community and technical college courses that teach basic and green technical skills in combination, as well as green entrepreneurship for those interested in starting green businesses; and
Professional development for career center, registered apprenticeship program and community and technical college faculty to assist them in incorporating green concepts and skills into classes and programs.

The West Virginia GREEN-UP Council, along with five regional teams, will coordinate grant activities.

DCT Advisors LLC is pleased to have been able to assist WorkForceWV in obtaining this grant and looks forward to working with WorkForceWV on initial project start-up and facilitation of GREEN-UP Council activities over the next several years.

Tilting at real windmills: Part iii

10 January 2010

The New York Times reports that the National Park Service has thwarted efforts to establish a wind farm off Nantucket Sound by making Nantucket Sound eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The request was made by two Massachusetts Indian tribes, who said the 130 proposed wind turbines would interfere with their spiritual ritual of greeting the sunrise and disturb ancestral burial grounds.

Tilting at real windmills: Part ii

4 January 2010

Just then they came in sight of thirty or forty windmills that rise from that plain. And no sooner did Don Quixote see them than he said to his squire: “Fortune is guiding our affairs better than we ourselves could have wished. Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho, thirty or forty hulking giants? I intend to do battle with them and slay them. With their spoils we shall begin to be rich for this is a righteous war and the removal of so foul a brood from off the face of the earth is a service God will bless.

- Miquel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

In our search to create a carbon neutral world, we have begun to harness small, but not insignificant, amounts of wind energy. Until recently my knowledge of wind energy was limited to a vague notion that there were a lot of windmills (not true) and wooden shoes in Holland.

Today I know a lot more about wind energy. That knowledge makes me appreciate that making environmentally-correct decisions can be very complicated. Some of the issues:

Not all places are equal in terms of their ability to produce wind energy. Only one region of West Virginia – the Potomac Highlands – is well suited for large-scale wind energy production.
The best places for wind in West Virginia – the tops of large mountains – can be very hard to reach with 50+ ton wind turbines.
Wind turbines can kill endangered species like Indiana bats.
The noise created by wind turbines has been linked to negative health effects for nearby residents.
Many people have concerns about the impact of wind turbines on viewscapes. Would you want to stay at a bed and breakfast in Greenbrier County with a large wind turbine in plain view? How about wind turbines in our “quasi-sacred” national forests and other public lands where, by the way, most of West Virginia’s harnessable wind energy can be found?

Unlike Don Quixote’s imaginary enemies, our environmental enemies – global warming, destroyed ecosystems, polluted streams – are quite real. But slaying these real enemies might prove just as difficult for us as slaying imaginary enemies was for Don Quixote.

Tilting at real windmills: Part i

3 January 2010

Week after week this year, I have watched Inside Higher Ed‘s list of new stand-alone academic programs include environmental sustainability or some permutation thereof. According to the Washington Monthly‘s College Guide blog (h/t), at least 100 such programs were established in 2009.

During the process of facilitating the development of West Virginia’s green jobs education and training plan, I had an opportunity to read some very rosy assessments of future green jobs needs. Those reports (e.g., O*NET) repeatedly emphasized that green jobs were primarily, but not exclusively, going to be found in existing occupations.

As a result of these assessments, the leading national report on green jobs education and training, titled Greener Pathways, had this to say: “More time should be spent embedding green skills training within current curricula, and less energy inventing new programs.” This admonition caused the West Virginia GREEN-UP Council to propose expending most new green education and training dollars on greening up existing programs and existing workers, not on starting a lot of new sustainability programs.

Is Greener Pathways right? I think so:

To design a green building, you must have basic architectural skills.
To build or renovate a building using green products, you must have building and construction trades skills.
To install or retrofit an energy efficient HVAC system or maintain a wind turbine, you must have basic electro-mechanical skills.
To ensure that a community’s water supply is environmentally safe, you must have basic chemistry and biological testing skills.

While I’m convinced that a green revolution is upon us, I worry that students pursuing these new sustainability degrees will not be able to find jobs upon graduation unless they also have other, more practical skills.

In my opinion, this push to create stand-alone environmental sustainability programs is another example of higher education being out of touch with real world needs, even as it tries to address those needs.

Of bats and men

14 December 2009

Last Tuesday a United States District Judge in Maryland effectively shut down Invenergy’s Greenbrier County wind turbine project, at least for a while, because of concerns about an endangered species called the Indiana bat. Several observations:

1) This decision is not likely to play well in Peoria or Parkersburg:

Why should a West Virginia resident care about Indiana bats? Of course, they’re endangered in West Virginia; they’re “Indiana” bats.
The environmentalists are no longer satisfied with shutting down fossil fuel production; now they’re shutting down renewable energy production, too.

2) Although this decision will not play well, it appears that Invenergy could have done something very simple – apply for an Incidental Take Permit – to satisfy the Endangered Species Act. Indeed the judge referred to Invenergy’s plight as “self-imposed.”

Why do companies like Invenergy not jump through reasonable hoops like the Incidental Take Permit process?
Invenergy is lucky that the bats hibernate from mid-November to the end of March, which means it can operate its wind turbines while it submits its permit request.

3) Even “clean” energy solutions sometimes raise environmental concerns, as this specific case illustrates. The road to a carbon neutral world is likely to be a long and bumpy one.

WorkForceWV receives $6 million green grant for workforce training

Tilting at real windmills: Part iii

Tilting at real windmills: Part ii

Tilting at real windmills: Part i

Of bats and men

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