11/21/08 Community College Energy

Community College Energy. I'm Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report. You have been hearing about a number of education programs aimed at the growing renewable technology areas with quite a number of subjects being taught. The field is growing faster than these programs can pump out new prospects. Roger Ebbage is the Director of Energy Programs, Northwest Energy Education Institute at Lane Community College in Eugene, OR. EBBAGE: We have a 2-year degree program; actually we have 3, 2-year degree programs now. Our mainstay and what we've been doing for the longest time is a 2-year degree program in energy efficiency. And that started in 1980 and our mission really is preparing people for a family wage, fulltime employment and we just happen to do it in the energy efficiency world which is fun. Ebbage says they have put the focus on a couple of different areas. EBBAGE: Our first version of the program was residential efficiency and this one that we are doing now is commercial building energy efficiency although we train people in the residential sector as well. Our second program is a combination of the two with a focus on renewable energy systems and our renewable energy systems of choice are photo-voltaic, solar electricity and solar water heating. Solar thermal is what that's called. He is adamant about why they have chosen this avenue in their curriculum. EBBAGE: The reason why we limit ourselves to those two solar technologies is because that's where the labor market is and if you'll recall I said our primary mission is to prepare people for family wage employment and we don't look at anything else because the market is solar water heating and solar voltaics in terms of volume of people needed. They have just started their third program in water conservation. Ebbage says that teaching energy programs is a good fit for community colleges since they can offer hands on training where most universities are more theoretical. But he says the numbers are sobering. EBBAGE: We are the only program in the United States that offers a comprehensive energy management degree, a commercial energy management degree. There should be at least a single program in every state and with that graduating 30 students every year; we would not satisfy the need. For additional information on clean energy, visit harvestcleanenergy.org. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.