KALAMAZOO – Kalamazoo Valley Community College will launch its program to train the coming generation of wind-energy technicians in the fall, with students able to get a jumpstart by enrolling in pre-requisite courses during the summer semester.
To earn a one-year certificate in the emerging field, students will complete 35 credit hours of classroom instructions and lab experiences designed to teach them how to install, maintain and service modern wind-energy turbines.
While they can prepare for this curriculum by enrolling in summer courses that begin May 18 and run through Aug. 10, the classes that apply directly to wind-energy technology will begin with KVCC’s fall semester scheduled to start on Sept. 8.
Among the chief instructional tools will be the 145-foot, 50-kilowatt, commercial-sized wind turbine that towers over the college*s technical wing on the Texas Township Campus and a 1.8-kilowatt model that is designed for residential purposes. A
wind-turbine lab in KVCC’s nearby M-TEC will also be part of the learning equation.
Through courses in applied electricity, electrical machines, programmable logic controllers, fluid power, the operations, maintenance and repair of wind turbines, the mechanical systems in these turbines, and the generation and distribution of power, students will be introduced to the technical standards in the industry.
They will learn about the generation of electrical power, safety in the workplace, mechanical devices, electrical, pneumatic and hydraulic systems, computer controls and communications. They will learn the skills needed to connect locally generated power into the grid systems used by utilities.
The curriculum will be rounded out by an overview of renewable energies, including solar energy, wind power, hydropower, geothermal energy, and alternatives to petroleum-based products. They will learn the basic principles of each technology to understand their natures, their limits and their potential.
A grant awarded to KVCC instructor Bill Wangler will do more than just make it easier for these future wind-energy technicians to work on residential-sized, electricity-producing turbines.
It will result in a multi-disciplinary project that will involve KVCC students enrolled in computer-aided design, welding, machine tool, manufacturing and electrical-technology classes.
The $1,500 grant from the MEEMIC Insurance Co.’s foundation will pay for the components and materials needed to build a mobile testing-and-measurement cart that can be used in the training of technicians who will be working on wind-turbine systems designed for residences.
A previous state grant was used by KVCC to purchase the 1.8-kilowatt wind turbine, said Wangler, who joined the college’s full-time faculty as an instructor in electrical technology in 2001.
For more information about the certificate program in wind energy, contact Deborah Dawson, KVCC’s dean of business and advanced technology, at .
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