Wider Horizons

Wind millWith its prowess in wind power, Lethbridge College is helping communities plug in emerging technology to harness this new industry.

By now, most of southern Alberta knows of the virtues of wind power. It’s clean, it doesn’t inconveniently run out like fossil fuels, and there are to date no videos of it inking through the Gulf of Mexico on its way to wash over fragile wetlands, or fouling West Coast wildlife.

OK, that’s the basic altruistic environmental highlight reel, one voiced over placid fields of pure white turbines spinning silently amid southern Alberta’s pasture land.

But there is far more to be derived economically from wind power than mere electricity and a clear conscience.

Rather, a gold rush is about to begin, one that, if properly assayed, could bring a shot of prosperity to rural communities in need of an economic break.

Lethbridge College is poised to be the vanguard of that gold rush. Seeded with a $1.2-million grant from the Rural Alberta Development Fund (RADF), the college is gearing to help establish southern Alberta as a world leader in the wind-energy sector.

The turbines springing up across the plains must be installed, operated and maintained, creating an entire service industry with its inherent jobs, centred primarily in rural communities. In partnership with several Canadian and international energy companies, Lethbridge College will use the $1.2 million to develop long-term training programs, educational products and stakeholder coalitions.

What does that mean for the folks in Pincher Creek, Barons, Vauxhall or any other town in the wind tunnel of the south? Through access to high-quality employment, their young people can find work at home. They’ll realize increased income diversification, economic sustainability and development of educational programming that can be adopted by other regional industries across Alberta.

The Canadian Wind Energy Association has determined that wind energy could well be Canada’s next great economic opportunity. That prediction is mirrored worldwide: between 2005 and 2008, employment in wind-related industries almost doubled to 440,000; by 2020 it’s estimated almost $1 trillion will be invested globally in new wind facilities and more than 1.75 million new employment opportunities will be created. (How much is $1 trillion? If you had started spending $1 million a day since AD 1, you wouldn’t run out of money for another 730 years.)

Anyone who has lived more than a fortnight in southern Alberta knows it has wind. But wind without infrastructure is useless. Ours is close to transmission lines, giving the area potential to outstrip any area in Canada and rank among major wind-energy countries. On that upbeat note, Lethbridge College began establishing the International Wind Energy Academy (IWEA) in 2005 to provide applied research

and development for “next generate on” employment. It also provides wind energy information and outreach programs for regional, national, and international communities.

IWEA’s experience has positioned it for the next strategic advance: transforming southern Alberta into Canada’s premiere training and service centre for a sustainable windenergy industry. Through this $3.5-million project, people, communities, organizations and institutions will be able to take advantage of the emerging opportunities.

Lethbridge College is collaborating with SouthGrow Regional Initiative, Economic Development Lethbridge, and the Alberta Southwest Regional Alliance to promote the region as a leader in alternative energy production and manufacturing. These three groups represent 39 municipalities and some 177,000 area residents.

IWEA has the muscle to make things happen. Lethbridge College remains the leading institution in Canada certified by the Educational Centre for Renewable Energy (BZEE) in Germany, which represents the European and North American standard for wind turbine technician training. It has developed partnerships with key industry partners in Canada and internationally, and has the support of Edmonton and Ottawa.

This critical mass has the potential for a multitude of benefits within the region, including economic diversification and increased quality of life through employment, retention of young people, broadened tax bases, entrepreneurial opportunities and power generation, expanded learning and skill development. IWEA’s goal is to spread benefits beyond the immediate region through delivery of hands-on learning, developing mobile wind-energy training technologies and a large wind demonstration site to transfer knowledge to other communities.

Lethbridge College’s partnership-based network of video conference sites and its links to industry will provide rural residents access to the latest changes in curriculum and new learning programs dedicated to wind and solar best practices. The college plans to deliver five industry training courses, including the BZEE Wind Turbine Technician course, in three rural and one Aboriginal community by the end of 2012.

Lethbridge College is poised for its starring role in making southern Alberta a land of renewable-energy opportunities.

Wider Horizons
Lethbridge College
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