Outland Receives Grants
CANBY, Minn. (September 18, 2009) Outland Renewable Energy has been named the recipient of three grants totaling $104,000 from the Renewable Energy Marketplace – Alliance for Talent Development (MNREM).
Through a partnership with Minnesota West Community & Technical College, the grants will be used to provide customized safety and wind turbine maintenance training for Outland’s current and future wind technicians, as well as wind energy students at Minnesota West.
The three grants awarded include:
- $44,000 “Hands on Training” – Building regional talent by providing hands-on wind turbine training for current and future Outland wind technicians and wind energy students at Minnesota West Community & Technical College.
- $14,500 “Gravitec Train-the-Trainer Training” – Funding for Outland’s EHS Specialist to attend Gravitec fall protection and rescue training, and then return to provide training and certification for Outland wind technicians and Minnesota West students.
- $45,500 “Geartech Gear Failure Analysis” – Outland will host seminars in the region in which Geartech will provide wind turbine gearbox training. The goal is to educate 125 Outland wind technician employees and/or wind energy students within the next year.
“We’re excited to be selected for these grant dollars from MNREM,” said Steve Scott, Outland president and COO. “The funds will help us maintain the quality and safety of the services we deliver through more efficient and thorough training of our wind technician team members. It will also provide additional training opportunities for wind energy students at Minnesota West Community & Technical College, which helps grow the wind energy talent pool in our region. In turn, we fully expect continued growth and expansion here at Outland.”
The grants are among 12 that were awarded by MNREM to promote innovative talent development and entrepreneurship solutions for the renewable energy industry in the 36-county MNREM region. The funded projects aim to build a strong and proactive talent development system that the renewable energy industry needs to stay competitive.
MNREM is part of the WIRED (Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development) initiative, a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to foster new partnerships and ways of delivering education and training to enhance the region’s talent development system.