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GCCC to train turbine technicians
Published 6/19/2009 in Local News : Education
By MONICA SPRINGER
There soon will be a new industry training opportunity at Garden City Community College that is designed to train already working wind turbine technicians.
A new seminar should be piloted in August, said Kent Kolbeck, program instructor for the John Deere Tech program at GCCC. He anticipates offering the seminar through continuing education courses at the GCCC Business and Industry Institute.
The courses will be a combination of online learning and classroom learning, Kolbeck said, with hands-on learning, as well. It will operate similarly to GCCC's ammonia refrigeration program, which trains workers from companies all over the world.
Kolbeck participated in a career and technical education internship with BTI Wind Energy and Endurance Wind Power Inc. to develop an industry curriculum for small wind generator technicians.
The training that will be implemented at GCCC is part of Kolbeck's internship.
After tornadoes demolished the town of Greensburg, the John Deere dealership there rebuilt and opened a new company, BTI Wind Energy, which sells small wind turbines.
Manufactured by a Vancouver company called Endurance Wind Power, small wind turbines produce 2.5 to 5 kilowatt units and can connect directly to a power grid. In many cases, the alternative wind energy reduces electrical costs, and the turbine industry continues to grow.
The internship took Kolbeck to Bucklin, where BTI is located, and to Spanish Fork, Utah, where there's a wind turbine test site on a mountain pass that has consistent winds.
Kolbeck spent four days with the engineers who designed the turbines and learned how the machines work. Now, he said, the focus is to train current workers of the dealerships that sell the turbines.
The curriculum will consist of an overview of the system, safety, specific inputs and outputs, generators, control panel and maintenance.
The technicians who take the program also will learn how to raise and lower a tower, Kolbeck said.
Kolbeck said that almost all of the curriculum is currently taught in the GCCC's Industrial Production Technology program and in the John Deere Tech program.
The class likely will be held in Greensburg because a tower is available to put up and lower. The class, including the online and on-site portions, will be about three days long.
The technicians will be working with a five-kilowatt tower, which can stand anywhere from 100 to 140 feet tall.
The curriculum for the program is designed around turbines from Endurance Wind Power, a manufacturer of wind turbines. BTI Wind Energy LLC sells the wind turbines, and the program is designed to train technicians to work at the dealerships.
BTI is setting up dealerships all over the country, Kolbeck said.
On the Web:
Garden City Community College: http://www.gcccks.edu
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