tagged w/ new energy economy
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Ecotech Institute, the first and only college entirely focused on preparing America’s workforce for careers in renewable energy and sustainability, announced today that its January quarter kicked off with 100 new students, the largest start to date. With total current enrollment at 473 students, Ecotech witnessed a student population increase of almost 400 percent in just one year.
Ecotech Institute started classes in a temporary facility in June 2010 as it completed an overhaul of an existing vacant building. In January 2011, Ecotech’s 119 students began attending school in its LEED gold-certified campus in Aurora, Colorado. Since then, the facility’s offerings, faculty and student enrollment have continually experienced growth and improvement.
This June, the first graduating class of 39 students is expected to receive their degrees and in December 2012, another 50 students are expected to graduate. Of these students, the most popular degrees include Wind Energy Technology, Renewable Energy Technology and Electrical Engineering Technology.
“We knew we had something special when Ecotech opened its doors, and it’s inspiring to see increasingly more students come from across the country to pursue a degree that can truly make a difference in the world,” said Mike Seifert, president of Ecotech Institute. “With our first group of graduates in June, we can’t wait to see where they go and to hear their stories of success. This is definitely going to be a big year for us.”
Today, 90 percent of Ecotech’s students are men and 77 percent of the students are from Colorado. However, every day more and more students are moving from other states to pursue a degree at Ecotech, with students from 37 states and Puerto Rico currently represented. The top states from which Ecotech students have relocated include California, New Jersey, Wyoming, Illinois and Texas.
With the growth in students comes a growth in faculty as well. When Ecotech first opened, the school had one program director and two instructors. Ecotech now has three program directors and 24 instructors who teach in 11 hands-on learning labs. Ecotech’s holistic teaching approach gives students a chance to learn first-hand about the technology they will use in the field of their future career. At Ecotech, students also learn soft skills (communication, workplace etiquette), math and science basics and technology skills.
Ecotech Institute, which is accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, offers seven highly practical degree programs and one certificate program that provide graduates with skills valued by today’s alternative renewable energy employers.
To learn more about Ecotech Institute, visit us online at www.ecotechinstitute.com or call 877-326-5576. The next round of classes begins in April and applications are being accepted now. Financial assistance is available to those who qualify.Ecotech Institute, the first and only college entirely focused on preparing... more
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Humans can generate Energy with bikes. I’ve been on one of them at Bonnaroo. Engineers can create designs like this where Humans can create energy while working out! OR even have this be a job! I’d apply! :) Bike for pay! whoo! :) #gogreen #getoffthegrid
We need to move away from Nuclear energy, oil, coal, petroleum, plastic, etc and move into a Greener future. Solar, Wind, Tide, Hemp, and even Human energy. We can do it Planet Earth. Let’s come together! Let’s do it!
Sincerely, A Compassionate Citizen of Planet Earth.
~Yvonne GougeletHumans can generate Energy with bikes. I’ve been on one of them at Bonnaroo.... more
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Everyone is talking about “green jobs.” While many people are eager to become employed in the sustainability sector, there are naysayers who don’t believe that they actually exist. This article provides examples of changing industries outside of the traditional cleantech sector.Everyone is talking about “green jobs.” While many people are eager to... more
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Ecotech Institute, the first and only college focused entirely on preparing America’s workforce for alternative energy careers in renewable energy and sustainable design, today announced growing demand for its Electrical Engineering Technology Program. As research continues to underscore the importance of an overhauled power sector, related job skills will be critical and Ecotech’s program is in the forefront for career training.
Ecotech Institute, which is accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, launched in Denver, Colorado in April 2010 with seven highly practical renewal energy degree programs and one certificate program that provide graduates with skills that are valued by today’s alternative renewable energy employers.
According to The 21st Century Electric Utility: Positioning for a Low-Carbon Future, a Ceres Report authored by Navigant Consulting, “The successful 21st century electric utility company will be very different from the utility of the 20th century. To remain competitive, today’s utility must respond to the risks and opportunities from climate change, carbon costs, volatile fuel prices, emerging clean technologies, expanding energy efficiency programs, increasing customer expectations and competing third party energy providers. Responding to these challenges will require new core competencies and revised business models for U.S. utilities.”
“Ecotech’s Electrical Engineering Technology Program is in high demand for its ability to prepare graduates for careers that require highly technical knowledge in the new energy economy,” says Alison Wise, Director of Career Services at Ecotech Institute. “For example, as the aging grid moves toward Smart Grid technologies, our students will have the knowledge base to sustain lifelong careers in this changing industry.”
This program prepares students for alternative energy careers while focused on the fundamentals of electrical engineering. Ecotech’s state-of-the-art laboratories and facilities allow students the opportunity to apply theory and graduates will be well prepared to become electrical engineering technicians.
The Electrical Engineering Technology Associate degree requires 96 credit hours of education. Upon successful completion of this program, students should be able to:
• Apply electrical and electronic theory and related knowledge to design, build, repair, calibrate, and modify electrical components, circuitry, controls, and machinery;
• Perform diagnostic electrical analysis;
• Meet industry standards within the electrical engineering field;
• Apply safety principles; and
• Coordinate a successful job search.
To learn more about Ecotech Institute, visit http://www.ecotechinstitute.com/. Applications are being accepted now and financial assistance is available.Ecotech Institute, the first and only college focused entirely on preparing... more
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By Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium Blogger
President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao touched on energy issues in the bilateral summit between the two countries this week.
“I believe that as the two largest energy consumers and emitters of greenhouses gases, the United States and China have a responsibility to combat climate change by building on the progress at Copenhagen and Cancun, and showing the way to a clean energy future. And President Hu indicated that he agrees with me on this issue,” President Obama said during a Wednesday press conference.
But can the United States step up as a leader on clean energy? The proliferation of politicians whom The Nation’s Mark Hertsgaard calls “climate cranks” suggests otherwise.
The biggest consumers
In international climate negotiations, the United State and China are the two key players, and if the world as a whole is to move forward on combating climate change, agreement between Presidents Obama and Hu would be a huge breakthrough. Mother Jones‘ Kate Sheppard notes that Hu also said the United States and China would work together on climate changes, but, she writes, “I can imagine, though, that the conversation on this subject wasn’t entirely as chummy as the remarks would imply, however. The US last month lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organization about China’s subsidies for clean energy, arguing that the country is unfairly stacking the deck in favor of their products.”
At AlterNet, Tina Gerhardt and Lucia Green-Weiskel explain the background to those tensions and to the U.S.’s protectionist bent on clean energy projects. They write, “Energy Secretary Chu recently framed the new relationship between the U.S. and China as a ‘Sputnik Moment.’ Referencing the first satellite launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, which demonstrated its technological advantage and led to the Cold War-era space race, Chu warned that the U.S. risks falling behind China in the clean technology race.”
Stumbling blocks
China’s motivations for growing its clean energy sector may not be leafy green; new energy sources feed the country’s rapidly growing economy. But at least the country is committed to green energy sources, unlike our climate change-denying Congress. As Mark Hertsgaard argues at The Nation, this brand of American has become so pernicious, it’s time to stop adhering to the protocol that dubs them “climate deniers” and start calling them “climate cranks.” He explains:
True skepticism is invaluable to the scientific method, but an honest skeptic can be persuaded by facts, if they are sound. The cranks are impervious to facts, at least facts that contradict their wacky worldview. When virtually every national science academy in the developed world, including our own, and every major scientific organization (e.g., the American Geophysical Union, the American Physics Society) has affirmed that climate change is real and extremely dangerous, only a crank continues to insist that it’s all a left-wing plot.
Climate cranks attack
Unfortunately, climate cranks continue to interfere with both climate scientists and forward-thinking energy policy. At Change.org, Nikki Gloudeman writes about the ongoing saga of climate scientist Michael Mann, one of the climatologists embroiled in the Climategate brouhaha, who is still being attacked by climate-denying groups for his work. Gloudeman reports that although Mann has been investigated and found innocent of any misdeeds several times over, a group with a bias against climate change, the American Tradition Institute, is trying to obtain access to his work.
And in New Mexico, the state’s new conservative governor, Susana Martinez, “has attempted to subvert her own state constitution in order to stop [a] plan to begin reducing her state’s carbon emissions,” reports Dahr Jamail for Truthout. The plan, executed through state rules, would have reduced the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 3%, from 2010 levels, each year. The rules should have been made public, but Gov. Martinez kept them from being published, according to Truthout’s report. A local group, New Energy Economy, is fighting to implement them.
Bright spots
In some states, however, the clean energy economy is moving forward. As Care2’s Beth Buczynski reports, Clean Edge, a clean-tech advisory group, has identified the top ten states for clean energy leadership. They include California, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois.
“Rankings were derived from over 80 metrics including total electricity produced by clean-energy sources, hybrid vehicles on the road, and clean-energy venture and patent activity,” Buczynski reports.
And, as David Roberts writes at Grist, there is important work to be done at the local and regional level to both prepare for and prevent climate change. His preferred term for this challenge is “ruggedizing”—strengthening a community’s ability to respond to challenges brought on by climate change, such as flooding, droughts, or food shortages. The solutions to these problem, Roberts writes, often have the welcome side effect of decreasing carbon emissions, as well:
For instance, the residents of Brisbane are discovering that when disaster strikes, it’s not very handy to have everyone spread out all over the place and utterly dependent on cars to get anywhere. It’s more resilient to have people closer together, more able to walk or take shared transportation. It just so happens that also reduces vehicle emissions.
The advantage of this type of work—building the clean energy economy, ruggedizing communities—is that leaders don’t necessarily have to agree on the reality of climate change to move forward. But these are only partial solutions, and to address climate change on an international scale, the cranks will need to be quieted.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the environment by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Mulch for a complete list of articles on environmental issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Pulse, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.By Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium Blogger
President Obama and Chinese President Hu... more
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Ecotech Institute, the first and only college focused entirely on preparing America’s workforce for careers in renewable energy and sustainable design, today announced that students are now taking classes in its brand new facility. Located at 1400 South Abilene Street in Aurora, the school has transformed a vacant, large-footprint building into a progressive campus focused on educating future leaders in the ever-growing green landscape. Ecotech Institute launched its first round of classes in July 2010 in a temporary facility and the third quarter commenced last week in the new facility with almost 200 students enrolled.
The building is home to 30 classrooms, 12 state-of-the-art computer and science labs (e.g. electrical, wiring, solar, wind safety, controls, environmental science), studios, student and faculty lounges, a library, and a variety of other amenities.
In addition, the building incorporates energy and resource savings throughout. Some of the sustainable design components of the new campus include:
• Twelve polycrystalline rooftop photovoltaic solar panels with a system capacity of 2.8 kilowatts.
• Integral thin solar technologies embedded into the glass of the front building canopy. This system has a capacity of 9.4 kilowatts.
• Eight small wind turbines mounted on the roof to generate up to 4.8 kilowatts of electricity.
• A Vertical Axis wind turbine that can generate a total capacity of 4 kilowatts.
• Two solar trees, each providing 16.9 kilowatts of electricity, that will generate over 50,000 kilowatt-hours per year of electricity.
• Energy efficient lighting that will reduce energy consumption by 30 percent below standard lighting energy levels.
• Water sense, low-flow fixtures in lavatories.
• Motion sensors and a programmed schedule to limit lighting in unoccupied rooms.
“Beginning courses in our new building marks a tremendous milestone in our evolving growth,” says Michael Seifert, president of Ecotech Institute. “This campus embraces what we are most passionate about: access to exceptional education and commitment to the environment.”
“Green jobs are in demand in Colorado and around the country and we are pleased to provide top-notch, hands-on education that will deliver graduates to companies that are leading the cleantech sector,” Seifert added.
According to the Colorado Cleantech Action Plan, “Cleantech is growing in Colorado and creating thousands of jobs.” Citing the Pew Center’s report, The Clean Energy Economy: Repowering Jobs, Businesses, and Investments Across America (http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedfiles/clean_economy_report_web.pdf), “Between 1999 and 2009, Colorado’s cleantech industry grew at an annualized rate of 18 percent, more than twice the rate of the Colorado economy as a whole (8 percent).”
Ecotech Institute, which is accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, offers seven highly practical degree programs and one certificate program that provide graduates with skills that are highly valued by today’s renewable energy employers. The programs include:
• Electrical Engineering Technology, Associate of Applied Science
• Energy and Environmental Paralegal, Associate of Applied Science
• Energy Efficiency, Associate of Applied Science
• Environmental Technology, Associate of Applied Science
• Renewable Energy Technology, Associate of Applied Science
• Solar Energy Technology, Associate of Applied Science
• Sustainable Interior Design, Certificate Program
• Wind Energy Technology, Associate of Applied Science
To learn more about Ecotech Institute, visit www.ecotechinstitute.com. Applications are being accepted now. Financial assistance is available for those who qualify.Ecotech Institute, the first and only college focused entirely on preparing... more
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