from staff
Solar Energy Initiatives, Inc. recently announced a partnership with three Jacksonville job training and placement agencies to train displaced workers as solar energy installation and maintenance technicians.
This new partnership is a first step in Solar Energy’s “Renew the Nation” campaign intended to promote job growth and economic development nationwide by providing a trained workforce to enter the fast growing renewable energy industry. The program, pending final approval by the Jacksonville City Council, is being funded by $387,000 in federal stimulus dollars provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Joining Solar Energy in this job training collaborative is Community Rehabilitation Center (CRC), Northeast Community Action Agency (NFCAA) and WorkSource. Solar Energy is providing the training curriculum and materials, while CRC will manage the program and NFCAA and WorkSource will supply the trainees.
The training facility, known as CRC Institute, will be located at Pearl Plaza at the corner of North Pearl and West 44th streets. The first class of 40 participants is anticipated to begin later this year.
“CRC is proud to join forces with Solar Energy, WorkSource and NFCAA,” said Reginald Gaffney, CRC’s executive director and CEO. “This collaborative program will help train people who have lost their jobs due to the downturn in the economy and prepare them for the new green economy.”
As part of Solar Energy’s Renew the Nation campaign, the company is helping redeploy a portion of the U.S. workforce and focus on reducing the world’s dependence on fossil fuels by driving demand for solar thermal and photovoltaic (PV) technologies.
Solar Energy’s business model operates on three fronts:
• Solar Parks — Development of large utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) installations bringing together landowners, utilities and corporate resources to build and operate.
• Solar Power Purchase Agreements (SPPA) — Placing solar systems on large commercial or municipal buildings and selling the energy output to the owner(s).
• Solar Dealers — One of the fastest growing independent dealer networks of contractors that sells and installs solar solutions to homeowners and commercial customers.
Last week, Solar Energy announced a letter of intent for $17 million in Commercial Projects set to utilize approximately 20,000 solar panels for 4 megawatts of solar and projected to reduce hazardous carbon dioxide emissions by 6,000 tons, annually. Solar Energy also recently secured its 78th solar energy dealer and signed a contract securing land for the development of a 300 megawatt solar park in west Texas.