New academy to train technicians for low carbon power sector

The Power Industry Academy is part of a new £33 million centre at Warwickshire College in Rugby. It provides training and resources for the energy manufacturing supply chain with a focus on turbines and carbon friendly power generation.

The Government says that more than £110 billion of investment is needed in new power stations and grid upgrades over the next decade and around a quarter of the UK's generating capacity needs to be replaced by 2020, equivalent to around 20 large power stations.

The Power Industry Academy has been set up to help meet the skills needs of this major infrastructure investment as well as green collar jobs being created in the UK’s rapidly expanding wind energy market, particularly offshore wind.

Industry links
It has close links to and support from industry players such as Alstom, Converteam, Quartzelec and Doosan Babcock. The latter is involved in a carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration project at Ferrybridge in Yorskhire. The Government wants to see a total of four full-scale CCS demonstration plants up and running in the UK and estimates the CSS industry could be worth up to £6.5 billion and sustain up to 100,000 jobs by 2030.

The Academy said its business partners had enabled the new facility to provide key equipment that would only normally be available for training and skills development when a power generation facility is taken 'off-line’.

Ground-breaking equipment
Equipment at the groundbreaking multi-million pound centre includes a full-sized industrial generator; a remote-controlled gantry crane with 10 metric tonne capacity; generator drive equipment and latest welding equipment.

"Warwickshire College would like to thank all our partners and funders for supporting the Power Industry Academy. The college now has a fantastic, unique facility, designed with industry experts, which will equip the power generation manufacturing industry for the future," said Peter Husband, vice principal for Engineering at Warkwickshire College.

The Academy was funded with £6.2 million from regional development agency Advantage West Midlands.

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Related links:
www.warkscol.ac.uk