This green, wind energy story was originally written in 2009 for Blue SKy Green Earth Magazine. It features none other than Skye Long, my brother.

It began as a small breeze in 2006, but since then has started creating large gusts.

The Wind Energy Program at Cloud County Community College in Concordia, Kan. continues this August with more than 120 students and a waiting list.

“I didn’t really know it would get as large as it has,” Bruce Graham, lead wind energy technical instructor said.

The program officially started in 2006 with four students in a night class Graham taught. The full program started in the fall of 2007. That year eight students entered the Wind Energy Program at CCCC, starting a wave of interest and expansion.

For the students who make it past the waiting list, two tracks are laid in front of them. The program offers the Associate of Applied Science degree, a two-year program best for students without lineman training or electrician experience, and a Certificate Program, a one-year program for students with training and experience. The following three students are at different points in their wind energy careers, but all want jobs in the wind energy market someday soon.

Working in the wind

Having graduated in May from the Certificate Program the CCCC Wind Program offers, Joel Cox has an internship as a substation technician. But before his time at CCCC and his wind experience, Cox had earned his auto body Associates Degree at Wyoming Technical Institute in Laramie, Wyo. He made the jump from cars to wind turbines based a lot on what the job market could offer him.

“The switch pays a lot better,” Cox said. “This pays a lot of benefits, something unheard of in the automotive business.”

Leaving behind the cars and trucks, Cox headed to CCCC with almost no knowledge of wind energy. During last year that quickly changed when Cox learned all about hydraulics, electrical theory, substations and wind farms. He even helped with the installation of the existing wind turbines at the college.

With the coursework in progress, other tests like the climbing test got Cox first hand experience with working turbines 100 feet up in the air.

“It’s pretty small once you are up there,” Cox said. “It fits two guys crunched over. Then you go out onto the service platform. From there you get a little nervous when practicing for a high angle rope rescue from the top of the wind turbine, but once you seen that the guys below have you safely connected, stepping off isn’t scary. I really liked it.”

With all his training Cox graduated in May but didn’t end up with exactly the job he was looking for. He is a substation technician intern out in Garden City, Kan. with Sunflower Electrical Power Corporation.

“My internship doesn’t directly deal with wind energy, but I wouldn’t have gotten the job without my wind energy training,” he said.

This internship worked out well for Cox because he still needed to take the substation class to complete his certificate, but through some negotiations with the company and college, Cox will earn his substation credit while he works this summer. He also has prospects of staying with the company once the internship ends. He said he would be a fool not to take it because he is looking for something that will keep him in one place for a while.

“I’m tired of traveling,” Cox said. “Sooner or later wind farms will start popping up and they will need technicians where they are, but the transmission lines aren’t there yet.”

So Cox sees a bright and windy future for the wind industry and as a recent graduate looking for job opportunities, he is hopeful.

Still blowing through

Kurtis Jarvis knows Cox and was encouraged a little by how he already had a job. Having a secure future is something to look forward to in a down economy. “I figured they (wind turbines) will be around quite a bit, so I wouldn’t be laid off soon,” said Jarvis, a student at CCCC going into his second year in the Wind Program from Phillipsburg, Kan.

He first thought of going to wind energy school when he heard a wind turbine farm might be installed go up around his hometown. With mechanical systems knowledge, Jarvis went off to CCCC in the fall of 2009 after graduating high school. After his first year, he has learned about everything from hydraulics to power line voltage to site locations.

“I learned there is a lot more to things than just picking a spot and building constructing a wind turbine,” he said. “You have to look at the wind and what things like trees do to it (causing wind turbulence).”

And in the state ranked second in potential wind energy, those factors are vital. Besides all the theory and information from the books and instructors, the wind program also offers a lot of hands-on experience. It might not always be up 100 feet in the air on the turbines, but it deals with the same parts technology.

This past year, Jarvis actually got to play a had the opportunity to few small roles in the help in the construction of the three large turbines that went up were erected on the hill behind the college. He got to work on the torqueing of bolts and erection of the wind turbines, and he was there when the turbines were commissioned and started making producing their first power electrical energy.

This fall Jarvis will finish out his last year with courses in transformers and generator theory. These courses, along with previous ones, lean him more toward the maintenance side of the wind energy industry. Also before he graduates in May 2011, Jarvis will take his climbing tests, thus getting his first chance to climb to the top of the turbines shaping his future.

The first step into the breeze

He heard about it in high school from his woodshop teacher. Then he talked to Jarvis about how the program was going. Along with that, his dad has been interested in the technology for years.

“My woods teacher said is was a good, renewable resource we can take a hold of,” said Skye Long, a student starting in the CCCC Wind Program in August from Glade, Kan.

At this point he doesn’t know much about wind turbines but had the chance to meet some of the instructors and see the facilities. When he visited the college last spring, he got to see some of the smaller scale hands-on instruction teaching that happens in the classrooms.

To get in, students just have to apply and wait for an acceptance letter. Long remembers when he visited, he signed his name to a long list of with other prospective students. His name sat at nearly 140 on the list.

“I was past the 120 mark that I knew got into the school,” Long said. “It was a suspenseful thing to wait for my letter of acceptance to come.”

After getting in right away for this fall, and not being put on the waiting list, Long sighed with relief. Now comes two years of training.

With plenty of courses available, he doesn’t exactly know what he wants to do. He is going to try out some classes and see where his interests fall. By the end of July, he will have enrolled and have his academic direction, a least for the first semester. And thanks to some inside connections, Long will know what to expect his first year and Jarvis’s old books.

With no wind energy experience, all of it will be new, from the engines generators to the blades.

“I don’t really know what to expect,” Long said, “but I better learn something about wind energy.”

The wind keeps blowing in Kansas

These three CCCC students are shaping the wind energy program as they float through proceed through the training. More generations will follow and be a part of the expanding expansion of the program in the years to come. This summer the school looks to hire a fifth instructor and offer courses in site planning and blade maintenance. Graham said, in the future the program would expand by adding a director for the program, additional space and more wind turbines.

The hands-on program the school offers continues to grow as the school gets its third wind turbine up and running by the end of the year. Two of the three turbines are standing and already creating producing electricity for the school, up to 200 kilowatts combined.

Having the turbines allows for even more hands-on experience. Students get the chance to be a part of the construction and maintenance as it is happening. “It gives the students hands-on experience with what they will be doing,” Graham said. “They get to climb the tower and see if this is something they really want to do.”

Even once they leave CCCC, the students’ futures offer promise. Graham said the economy did slow down the job market, but it didn’t shut it down. Students like Cox found jobs an internship opportunity which could lead to a job, and Jarvis and Long hope for the same.

“Not all of the students have a job the day they walk out the door,” Graham said, “but there are opportunities out there.”

Photo of wind farm in Kansas by Brenna Malmberg.