College Hosts Open House, Celebrates Latest Donation to Wind Turbine Technician Academy

Students enrolled in Kalamazoo Valley Community College's Wind Turbine Technician Academy (WTTA) now have new wind turbine to use for hands-on training, thanks to a recent donation from long-time educational affiliation partner, Heritage Sustainable Energy. An open house to celebrate the donation and showcase the college's training facility is planned for Oct. 28 from 1 - 4 p.m. at the Groves Campus located at 7107 Elm Valley Drive in Kalamazoo.

Traverse City, Michigan-based Heritage donated the generator, gearbox, systems controls and hub assembly of a 160-foot-tall Vestas V44 turbine to the college last month. The turbine stood just west of Traverse City for more than 25 years. When built in 1996 by Traverse City Light and Power, it was the United States' tallest and largest energy producing wind turbine. Heritage purchased the turbine in 2014 and the college's WTTA provided repairs, upgrades and routine service to the turbine over 7 years. It was decommissioned in August of 2022 to make way for a two-megawatt solar field expansion.

"Heritage Sustainable Energy has long supported education and the value of programs that help workforce development. The hands-on training our academy students received by servicing the turbine in the field for the last decade has been an important part of our curriculum," said Tom Sutton, director of wind energy and technical services for the Wind Turbine Technician Academy. "The value of this industry-education partnership is demonstrated by the placement rates of graduates who are made job ready upon graduation because of the willingness of companies like Heritage who believe in high quality, hands-on education."

The media and attendees will have the chance to watch training demonstrations on the newly donated equipment and tour the training facility during the open house.

Today, American wind power supports more than 100,000 jobs. Kalamazoo Valley Community College, located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, created the Wind Turbine Technician Academy in 2009 to meet workforce challenges of the wind industry and support students interested in launching careers as wind turbine technicians by providing a fast track to jobs that are in demand and pay high wages.

Kalamazoo Valley offers the course as a non-credit, full-time program allowing students the chance to be job-ready in less than six months. Focused on specific, hands-on competencies, the unique training model followed at the academy moves students from the classroom to the learning labs and into the field quickly. More than 96 percent of Wind Turbine Technician Academy alumni work in the wind industry, with the majority accepting offers for employment prior to graduation. The academy is offered twice a year, in January and July. For more information, visit www.kvcc.edu/wind.