Minnesota Electricians Harness Renewable Energy

Darryl Thayer teaches a training class in solar energy.

This cross-post from the April 2009 edition of the Electrical Worker newspaper demonstrates again how union workers are taking the lead in preparing for the green jobs of the future.

Darryl Thayer, a member of the Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 292 in Minneapolis, hardly received a visionary’s welcome when he addressed the Minnesota legislature in 1968 about the need to develop solar energy and wean the state from fossil fuel-based sources. Worse yet, says Thayer, many of my fellow workers “thought I was nuts.”

Forty-one years later, the legislature has a green energy task force. Now Thayer, a 53-year member, who teaches solar classes at Local 292’s apprenticeship training center, is a hero to folks like Ray Zeran. He’s one of 600 unemployed IBEW members who are looking to benefit from billions of dollars of state funds and federal stimulus money focused on renewable energy projects. 

In February, Zeran, who graduated from his five-year apprenticeship last July, joined 150 IBEW members from across Minnesota for a lobbying day in St. Paul, where renewable energy was a main focus. “I participated because I realized—early on in my electrical career—that just showing up at work every day is not enough,” says Zeran, who needs one more installation to become certified as a solar specialist.

Local 292’s training center, which features one of the nation’s best solar labs and its own solar system, has a waiting list for students. But the local isn’t taking an exclusive approach to training.  Jim Nimlos, Local 292’s training director, and his counterpart at Local 343, Andy Toft, developed a student exchange between 343’s wind turbine training and 292’s solar curriculum.

While Minnesota may appear to be an improbable generator of sun power, Nimlos says the state sits on a latitude similar to Germany, where solar power is well-developed and Minnesota’s lower temperatures keep panels operating at maximum efficiency. And the state’s clear skies make it competitive with Jacksonville, Fla., San Francisco and Houston, he says.  

IBEW participates in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar America Cities project, which targets 25 metropolitan areas for sun power development. Thayer—who earned a bachelor’s in physics more than 13 years ago working as a journeyman electrician and has nearly completed his master’s in engineering—has written a curriculum for the project. Fully half of all certified Minnesota solar installers are Local 292 members.

While Local 292 focuses on solar power, the use of wind power has been expanding rapidly in southern Minnesota, where Local 343 is located. The local is completing a 60-foot climbing tower for practicing high-voltage safety, climbing and rescue procedures on turbines in conjunction with a national wind power curriculum. Toft, who sets a priority on making IBEW-organized contractors more competitive in wind projects, expects to see 1,700 towers erected over the next few years.

The training programs are part of the IBEW Minnesota State Council’s efforts to promote new training and encourage grassroots political activism to set high standards for renewable energy workers. Those efforts are returning results that could reach far into the future.

The legislature’s green jobs task force was already considering more than 20 bills—including bond measures for public projects on green energy—before Congress passed the $787 billion stimulus package. The state has some of the strongest environmental and energy laws in the nation—including a mandate that one-quarter of Minnesota’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2025.

The IBEW supports state legislation to include more money to cover the labor costs of relocating existing power lines to make way for new highway and rail projects that will be financed by the federal stimulus. IBEW locals are gearing up to provide labor from new needs. A state bill supported by environmentalists provides that one-half of all new parking facilities include outlets to charge electric vehicles.

State Sen. Ellen Anderson, who co-chairs the green jobs task force, recently reported that investing in the new non-fossil fuel technologies will result in 70,000 new or retained jobs. Minnesota will receive $9 billion in tax cuts and new federal aid through the stimulus package.

In a state that mandates the licensing of electricians, the IBEW is challenging the perception that solar and wind energy require entirely new careers. Local 292 business representative Dan McConnell, who meets with community college educators who are setting up renewable energy training, says he asks them “what will happen to students who are only trained in renewable energy installations if the bubble bursts in any specific sector.”

McConnell proposes to educators and legislators that the demand for solar workers be filled by journeymen and apprentice electricians who receive supplementary training in how to properly design and angle panels and calculate their efficiency.

Solar panels are live when they come out of the box. Safety should not be taken for granted.  [Better-trained workers] are far more recession-proof than workers trained exclusively on renewable installations.

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