Oct 26 2010
The Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) appreciated the efforts of St. Lawrence College on opening the Wind Turbine and Trades study program.
The program opened within its Kingston campus will incorporate all the up-to-date features to offer an all inclusive Wind Turbine Technician program for the students. The program fulfills the aim of the college to train more people to meet the growing demand for trained technicians in clean energy industries. The newly created facility incorporates, solar air heating systems, solar panels and a nacelle of a wind turbine to provide hands-on experience for the students along with theory subjects.
Currently there is a growing demand for wind energy in Canada and the government is on the lookout for various ways to generate more power to cope with the increased power needs, to reduce the greenhouse gas releases and also to improve the economic development in Canada. In 2009 the wind energy industry in Canada witnessed a record growth with 950 MW worth installations of new wind turbines with more than $2.2 billion as investment. The country currently has an installed wind power generating capacity of over 3,549 MW.
Robert Hornung, CanWEA’s President predicts that all over the world more than $1 trillion will be made as investment in renewable energy products within the next 10 years and it will generate over 1.75 million clean energy jobs. He added that the novel Wind Turbine Technician program provided by St. Lawrence College will play an effective role by offering quality training to meet the growing demand for the trained and skilled technicians in the renewable energy industry. According to CanWEA's Wind Vision 2025 Canada will make around $79 billion in wind energy markets by the year 2025 which will generate around 52,000 clean energy jobs and will produce over $165 million as annual income for the local municipalities.