The grant totaling $898,445 will help Vrtol develop three wind turbine technician training modules for the grant project. The goal is to integrate the materials into two-year college wind technology programs nationwide.

One of the modules will involve video — possibly a live webcast — of HCC technician students participating in different activities such as tensioning and torquing turbine blades.

Another module consists of a feasibility study of implementing wind energy in Freeport. Vrtol will record hours of data at different times during the day. Data he will record includes wind-speed measurements from a device called an anemometer, wind-direction, temperature and barometric pressure. He will conduct these studies at the top of buildings of different heights such as Union Savings Bank, 9 East Coffee and the Stewart Centre.

Freeport School District 145 will also be part of the study. The proposed plan at District 145 is to temporarily install a meteorological tower possibly between the baseball and softball fields. District 145 Superintendent Peter Flynn said the district has been interested in participating in a study like this for several years. “We’re looking to see whether or not it would be feasible to erect a wind turbine on school district property,” Flynn said.

Textbook Case
Along with instructor and community college chairperson for the American Wind Energy Association’s Education Working Group, Vrtol can add “contributing author” to his list of titles. For the past two years, Vrtol has been contributing knowledge and curriculum to a couple of the first wind turbine technician training textbooks available.

Vrtol recently received copies of the two texts he contributed to including “NCCER Contren Learning Series: Introduction to Wind Energy” published by Prentice Hall and “Introduction to Wind Principles” by Thomas Kissel. The two textbooks may be the first published for training wind turbine technicians.

“There was nothing out there. The textbooks used in the past were more engineering-based. Any institute had to rely on the knowledge of the instructor (to create curriculum). These books get into the operation and maintenance and component identification within the turbine,” Vrtol said.

Courtesy of The Journal-Standard. Copyright 2011. Some rights reserved