Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Upcoming Event

Best Places to Work in Virginia

Hamburger Menu Hamburger Menu

Tag: Southwest Virginia Community College

Accelerating the solar workforce

When local school systems decided to add solar arrays to their buildings, regional environmental nonprofit Appalachian Voices and other members of the Solar Workgroup of Southwest Virginia counted it as a victory in their six-year efforts to develop a renewable energy cluster in Virginia’s coalfield counties.

In January, Southwest Virginia Community College and Mountain Empire Community College launched the Solar Workforce Accelerator program to provide the workers to install those arrays. The effort was funded via a $225,000 grant from the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority.

“Solar market development has been this chicken-and-egg problem in areas like Southwest Virginia,” says Autumn Long, project manager for the Appalachian Solar Finance Fund, Appalachian Voices’ program promoting solar projects.

“There’s an acknowledged need for workforce training and diversification and opportunities for the labor force,” she says, but employing a solar workforce requires “a sustained demand for solar development in the region.”

The accelerator program entails seven days of eight-hour trainings followed by an eight-week apprenticeship with Got Electric LLC, the company installing local schools’ solar panels. Students get $500 for completing the seven-day training. The apprenticeship pays $17 an hour, just above Lee County’s median household income.

Graduates are over halfway to solar array installer certifications, which they can complete later if they choose, and have nine credit hours toward associate energy technology degrees. They may also have jobs.

“They pretty much told us if we wanted a job, they could get something situated for us,” says Owen Swinney, one of 10 students in the first cohort. Swinney, who graduated from high school in June and finished the accelerator program in July, says he might accept the offer, if he can work around the energy technology courses he plans to take at Mountain Empire Community College this fall.

MECC plans another cohort next summer, says Matthew Rose, dean of industrial technology. Southwest Virginia Community College is developing its program. The two colleges plan to educate three cohorts each, with eight to 15 students per group, during the next three years.

The Solar Finance Fund plans to help maintain market demand by providing grants, much of it from the Appalachian Regional Commission, and technical assistance to local governments and nonprofits interested in solar power.

“This is a great opportunity, especially for the future of jobs in this area,” Swinney says. “I think solar’s going to be here for a while.”  

SW community colleges to create wind manufacturing workforce

The presidents of four community colleges in Southwest Virginia signed a memorandum of understanding Wednesday to establish a wind manufacturing workforce development partnership.

“Today’s MOU signing is meaningful because it demonstrates our resident and abiding interest in collaborating. Our four community college presidents are setting an example of how to find ways to work together over significant opportunities that can empower the region as a whole,” said Will Payne, managing partner of Coalfield Strategies LLC and project lead for InvestSWVA.

Mountain Empire Community College, Southwest Virginia Community College, Virginia Highlands Community College and Wytheville Community College “will work together to promote, develop and expand the training and development of a workforce prepared to enter” the supply chain manufacturing workforce in the offshore wind energy field, the MOU states.

“We are realistic about the number of people ready to go to work in manufacturing,” Wytheville Community College President Dean Sprinkle said in a statement. “As a result, we see the wind energy sector as an exciting and compelling path for people who may be ‘on the fence’ about a manufacturing career. Training workers and inspiring them to live and work in our region are elements of our mission in community colleges, and this is an enticing opportunity.”

InvestSWVA commissioned Aberdeen, Scotland-based energy consulting firm Xodus Group Ltd. to perform research for Project Veer, its initiative to help Southwest Virginia manufacturers find entry points in the supply chain for wind energy equipment components announced in December 2021. The firm recommended that regional community colleges sign an MOU formalizing their collaboration, and that the project’s members identify a “major tier company” to act as an anchor and help pave the way to form relationships with global equipment manufacturers

With the MOU signed, the next step in the process is for the colleges to form a leadership team with a senior official and at least one other representative from each college. The stakeholders will work closely with the commerce and trade secretariat, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the Virginia Department of Energy and legislators to identify the “major tier company.”

“We accelerated the pace of this first phase of Project Veer from six months to three, so that we could spend the next three months building a timeline around the MOU, a potential partnership with the Hampton Roads Alliance and figuring out how we coordinate centrally to seize this opportunity,” Payne said.

The other chief recommendations of Xodus Group’s report are for the project’s members to form such a partnership with the Hampton Roads Alliance, designate a regional entity to act as a single point of entry into offshore wind and coordinate an approach to retain the next generation of workers, including highlighting the advantages of offshore wind careers.

“Virginia’s Southwest is an answer, a resource and the place to be for wind energy manufacturers looking for business partners who can satisfy market demand in a quality fashion,” Payne said. “The agreement we announce today is foundational to our success not just in the wind energy industry but to our ability to rally around opportunity, together. The presidents of our community colleges are setting a great example.

“This is beyond brainstorming — it’s about action — and they are the catalysts,” he said.