Hybrid street light shines on new alternative energy program

Outside the TEEX utilities and energy training facility on the Texas A&M Riverside Campus, a new vertical-axis wind generator and solar hybrid street light has been installed to launch TEEX’s new alternative energy training program. TEEX is the first training site in the Brazos Valley that is affiliated with the Texas Renewable Energy Education Consortium (TREEC), and plans to offer its first 40-hour apprentice-level certification course in solar installation, starting Oct. 31.

TEEX has received a Susan Harwood grant from OSHA to fund a new work zone safety initiative aimed at Spanish-speaking highway construction workers in the five-state OSHA Region VI covered by the OSHA Training Institute Southwest Education Center.

The 2010 Southwest Electrical Metering Assocation (SWEMA) Texas Meter School drew a record 179 participants to the Texas A&M Riverside Campus in Bryan on Oct. 25-29. Attendees came from 12 states and from as far away as Brazil.

A new TEEX 240-hour Heavy Equipment Operator Training program has graduated its first class, providing the graduates with hands-on skills training that can serve as a “stepping stone” to a job in the construction field. The program was a collaborative effort of TEEX and the Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services.

A new online course in basic electricity principles has been launched by TEEX for a general audience desiring a basic understanding of what electricity is and the principles involved in voltage, current, resistance and power.

Eight Irby Construction Co. employees worked in teams to troubleshoot customer line service problems on electric meter trainers with transformer units under the watchful eye of TEEX Electric Power Instructor Jack Lemmon in the utility hangar at the Texas A&M Riverside Campus. The employees were completing their four-year apprenticeship training with TEEX.

TEEX is playing a role in a technological breakthrough that could clean up the contaminated water recovered from drilling natural gas wells in shale deposits through the process of “hydraulic fracturing.” TEEX has worked closely with David Burnett of Texas A&M University and his partners to develop a lab protocol and analytical methodology for technicians who will be field-testing and analyzing the “frac” water after it has been recaptured. and processed to determine if it is clean enough to reuse or recycle.

More than 150 metering personnel from the electric power industry are expected to attend the 2009 Southwest Electrical Metering Association’s (SWEMA) Texas Meter School the week of Oct. 26-30 at the Texas A&M Riverside Campus in Bryan.

Protecting and monitoring the quality of the state’s drinking water supply is the goal of a joint effort by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and TEEX. TCEQ turned to the TEEX Water and Wastewater Program to establish baseline data for 24 public water systems in Texas, and to develop a protocol for effectively measuring possible contaminants with ECLOX monitoring equipment.

An agreement signing ceremony held today at Francis Tuttle’s Rockwell campus designates Francis Tuttle as a Texas Engineering Extension Service, or TEEX, Cooperative Learning Center.