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 RCC Students Off the Grid
KTVL News story featuring Rogue Community College Electronics Department Head, Dave McKeen, discussing RCC's new alternative energy course, which has given students the opportunity to both design and build a solar powered renewable energy system.
This year the Electronics Program was awarded a $10,000 project grant by the RCC Foundation to help implement a new alternative energy strand. This two-part project purchased new equipment enabling the department to offer a new alternative energy course to RCC students in 2009-10 and will build a solar powered renewable energy system, both designed and built by program students.
The new course, Introduction to Renewable Energy Systems, includes topics of solar, hydro, fuel cell, wind, and the related control and conversion systems. The equipment purchased by the RCC Foundation will be used to provide experiential hands-on activities using the various sustainable systems while also reinforcing math and science concepts tied to each experiment and project. This state-of-the-art program will serve several populations: Community members interested in alternative energy resources and systems; Current learners in the various program areas interested in learning about the various renewable energies and control/conversion systems; and targeted workforce training for employees who need to upgrade skills to include renewable energy resources and systems.
The second portion of the foundation grant dollars has provided the resources for students to create a solar display system, which uses solar energy to charge deep-cycle batteries. Converters will use the stored battery power to completely supply power to several workstations at the TRC-174 electronics lab. These ‘Green’ stations, which will be entirely off the grid, will continue to be used and maintained by AAS electronics students.
The college has plans to build on the beginnings in sustainable technologies that the RCC Foundation has helped to create. Within the next several years Rogue Community College hopes to offer a certificate and/or AAS degree program in renewable energy. |
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