Nunez Community College in Chalmette has signed a letter of intent with Energy Innovation of Norway to develop a curriculum and training center for construction and maintenance of on and offshore wind turbines.
The signing ceremony on the Nunez campus follows a trip taken this past summer by the Nunez executive team along with representatives from GNO Inc. and the St. Bernard Parish Government to the Block Island Wind Farm in Rhode Island.
That trip, to tour the United States’ first commercial offshore wind farm, inspired the effort to use Louisiana’s existing energy production foundation to bring wind power and other renewable energy sources to the Gulf South.
GNO Inc. recently announced that it had received a $50 million federal H2theFuture grant to develop a new energy cluster in South Louisiana. A portion of that grant will be used to establish the NeXus (New Energy Center of the United States) at the University of New Orleans, which will play a role in supporting Nunez’s new wind curriculum.
Nunez and Energy Innovation now begin the process of determining the specifics of the new curriculum to meet GWO (Global Wind Organization) standards. Projections show the wind industry in the United States will require a 60,000-person workforce by 2030.
