Clipper Windpower turbine parts arrive, key to new Kirkwood training program
200,000 pounds of metal were on the move just less than two miles Wednesday, to help bring 417 feet of learning down to Earth. Clipper Windpower in Cedar Rapids is donating components of its 2.5-megawatt wind turbines to Kirkwood Community College so the school can train students in its new Energy Production and Distribution program.
The Energy Production program starts training its first students in the fall of 2011, although many are already taking the first-year’s courses that mirror the school’s Industrial Maintenance program. Energy Production will teach students about wind, steam and solar power. It will prepare students to enter a variety of energy-related fields, including wind energy manufacturing, which accounts for about 2,300 jobs in Iowa alone.
The turbine’s four generators, hub, gear box, nacelle and other donated parts will give students the hands-on experience they come to expect in Kirkwood’s programs. Students will be able to assemble, disassemble and troubleshoot parts and systems of the turbine.
This turbine is not operational and will be used for training purposes only. It will be housed in a new addition to Jones Hall on Kirkwood’s campus in Cedar Rapids.
“We just saw this as an opportunity we couldn’t pass up, getting an actual turbine that our students can work on and really learn what they need to know to get a job in the emerging energy field after they graduate,” said Kirkwood Industrial Technologies dean Jeff Mitchell. “Due to the broad-based career approach of this program, graduates will have many career opportunities such as wind turbine technician, data acquisition, boiler operator, boiler technician and photovoltaic installer. They will be well prepared as careers and technologies change over time.”
Kirkwood is also working to bring a separate, operational wind turbine onto campus. It would also be a 2.5-mega watt turbine that would cut the school’s $1.2 million electric bill by 35 percent, paying for itself in about 10 years.
If everything goes as planned, construction would begin next fall and the wind turbine would be operational as early as January 2012.
Executive director of Facilities Tom Kaldenberg said, “We’ve been getting a lot of phone calls from people that want to know more about how Kirkwood’s getting involved in sustainable energy. Now we’re hoping we’ll have two great things to show them – energy training and energy generation.”