Community College of Rhode IslandSolar technology program: high-tech and eco-friendly
Good day, sunshine! This fall, the Community College of Rhode Island will collaborate with the Rhode Island State Energy Office to offer a new 40-hour training program in the field of solar power. Funded through a grant from the Renewable Energy Fund, the Solar Electric Technology Electrician Training Program teaches area electricians, journeymen and apprentices how to install solar panels for residential use.
In preparation for the training, the college has built simulated residential rooftops at the CCRI Training and Technology Center located in the Quonset/Davisville Industrial Park. While CCRI—the first RI host site for this type of training—provides the facilities and instructors, Entech Engineering on Block Island provides the necessary technical support.Solar panel technology can work two ways: (1) it can generate energy to be used immediately and (2) it can generate energy that can be stored for later use. The CCRI training program teaches electricians how to deal with both scenarios, and hands-on installation training in both roof-mounted and ground-mounted systems.
Pat Condon, special projects coordinator for the Rhode Island State Energy Office, explains the rationale behind the training program, “We feel there is a need in the state of RI to attract more people in the electrical trade to this technology.” He adds that for the past several years, his office has fielded numerous calls from homeowners interested in alternative energy technology but unable to find a qualified installer. “They were finding that most of the qualified [contractors and electricians] were only interested in large-scale projects,” he says.
To make alternative energy more palatable to the general public, the RI State Energy Office is also offering monetary incentives—a $4 per watt buy-down to offset the cost of installing solar power. Condon explains the buy-down with the following example: a homeowner could save as much as $8,000 on a modest $20,000 solar energy system with a 2,000-watt generation potential.
Robert Delaney, director of project development in the CCRI Division of Lifelong Learning, adds that the college is already fielding requests from electricians interested in enrolling in the program. “It will give them a competitive edge,” he explains.
The CCRI Training and Technology Center is already a host site for a different kind of green technology, the Advanced Building Technologies program, which introduces contractors to new energy efficient materials and building practices. Delaney hopes the Quonset facility can expand its repertoire of environmentally-forward programs in the future to include such technologies as wind power. “It’s a natural fit to what we already do,” he says.
For more information on the Solar Electric Technology Electrician Training Program, please call the CCRI Division for Lifelong Learning at (401) 294-5427.
