DAWSON CREEK – Wind Turbine Maintenance Technician students at Northern Lights College will soon have a significant hands-on training facility available on-site at the Dawson Creek Campus.
The nacelle, blades, and internal mechanisms of a wind turbine were unloaded on Nov. 4, and will be constructed on the Campus early in 2011. Once in place, the equipment will provide a training tower for use by NLC students enrolled in the Wind Turbine program.
“The equipment is for the direct practical training required as part of the program. This training includes disassembly and reassembly of a complete turbine as well as associated tasks regarding installation and maintenance of pitch control, hydraulics and blade maintenance,” said Howard Mayer, Dean of Instruction for Access, Business and International Training.
The training tower is a 150 KW unit that was operating in a wind park in Denmark prior to being shipped to NLC. The tower was disassembled in Europe, and shipped to Dawson Creek. The unit will not be in operation on the Campus. Rather, it will be erected on a shortened tower section and used for practical maintenance exercises throughout the program.
Also included in the package of equipment are a complete 30 KW turbine and a complete 40 KW turbine for use in a Wind Turbine lab for practical experience on smaller projects. The lab facility will be located in the Centre of Excellence for Clean Energy Technologies (Energy House). Energy House construction is slated for completion in March 2011.
All of the equipment was purchased through Wind Energie Service Technik of Husum, Germany. The opportunity to acquire the equipment came during an international wind energy trade show hosted in Husum in September. A four-person team represented NLC at this event, during which negotiations were completed to acquire the training equipment.
NLC is B.C.’s Energy College, and offers the only Wind Turbine Maintenance Technician program in British Columbia. The program’s first intake of students will graduate at the end of January 2011. NLC also is a member of BZEE, an international conglomerate of training institutions that develops training curriculum for wind turbine maintenance technicians.
For more information on the Wind Turbine Maintenance Technician program at NLC, or any of the College’s clean energy programming, go to nlc.bc.ca or call 1-866-463-6652.