Canadian Valley Technology Center has upgraded its wind technician training program to cope with the requirements of the wind power generating companies. The initiative was based on the response received from several wind developers across the region.
Since January 2010, the center has been providing wind technician training program for beginners. The extended program will cover motor controls, extensive training on hydraulics, electrical theory and schematics, enabling students to receive more official recognitions.
Randall Tharp, Wind Energy Specialist of Canadian Valley, has stated that upon successful completion of the program, graduates could earn around $15 per hour and they can also earn an additional $2 per hour with few wind firms.
Kylah McNabb, Wind Development Specialist for the Oklahoma Commerce Department, has stated that only few centers in Oklahoma provide wind technician training programs and Canadian Valley as well as High Plains Technology Center play a major role in developing these programs. She mentioned that the training programs of these centers maintain similar standards when compared to the other centers across the nation and the students are well trained to compete for wind careers. She added that the employees of wind companies always require special training after getting recruited because firms have several specialized machinery.
The new training program of Canadian Valley includes two wind towers for training new wind technicians. Each structure is 126 feet high, with a 75-foot mock hub and nacelle. Tharp has stated that all the students of the recent batch of the technician program got recruited even a week before their graduation day to work on a recently constructed wind farm located near Putnam. He mentioned that a standard wind farm with a power generation capacity of 100 megawatts needs eight service technicians. He said that presently around 3,000 wind technicians are working across the US and the figure is expected to grow in the future. He added that a standard wind plant generates as much electricity as 36 million gallons of oil or 1,200 railcars of coal, thereby helping to bring down the nation’s reliance on foreign oil.
Source: http://cvtech.edu