VAN WERT, OH – During a visit to Van Wert today, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) highlighted a local effort to prepare workers for jobs in high-growth alternative energy industries. During a tour of the Blue Creek Wind Farm, owned and operated by Iberdrola Renewables, Brown met with workers and community leaders, including Blue Creek Plant Manager Neil Voje and Pete Pritchard, Adult Workforce Education Director at Vantage Career Center. Blue Creek Wind Farm has a long partnership with Vantage Career Center to help tailor curriculums so students will be prepared for jobs in the wind industry.
“The Blue Creek Wind Farm is not only Ohio’s biggest wind farm, but it is bringing jobs to western Ohio, helping fund local schools and cities, and providing a source of renewable energy for thousands of homes and businesses,” Brown said. “Now, they’re also helping train the next generation’s workforce. Together, Iberdrola Renewables and Vantage, are helping build a pipeline of skilled employees who have talents needed to succeed in this emerging industry.”
Vantage and Blue Creek’s partnership mirrors a model Brown has championed that promotes sector-based partnerships to ensure that workforce training programs are developed with industry input and tailored to meet companies’ workforce needs.
“We are very proud of our longstanding partnership with Vantage,” said Blue Creek plant manager Neil Voje. “We helped tailor a program that fills wind farm needs across the country, while potentially providing wind turbine and solar technicians for Iberdrola Renewables. Last year we were able to institute a veterans scholarship program at Vantage to help veterans and their families train for jobs in the renewable energy sector. As a veteran, I’m very proud to work for a company where more than 15% of our operational employees are military veterans or active duty reserves.”
Jeff and Cathy Thomas, owners and operators of Lincoln Ridge Farms who have a lease with Blue Creek Wind Farm, also attended Thursday’s visit. The wind farm pays approximately $2 million in annual lease payments to local landowners – like the Thomases – and $2.7 million in annual payments to go to local school districts and municipalities.
Owned by Iberdrola Renewables and operating since June 2012, Blue Creek Wind Farm has 115 turbines in Van Wert County and 37 turbines in Paulding County. During the construction phase of the project, the farm created more than 500 construction jobs, generated $25 million in local spending, and created work for more than 30 Ohio companies that contributed parts or labor.
Brown has been a longtime supporter of wind energy and boosting the domestic manufacture of wind turbines used in wind farms like Blue Creek. Brown supported the bipartisan extension of the critical “1603” clean energy grant program, which will be used to finance the Blue Creek project, and was included in the tax extenders package passed by the Senate in December 2010. Brown was a lead sponsor of the American Renewable Energy Jobs Act, legislation which would ensure that grant money distributed through the "1603" wind energy program is given only to clean energy projects that preserve and create jobs in the United States. The “1603” wind energy program was originally created in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA).
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