Per usual, the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership’s Renewable Energy Roundtable was buzzing with good news on the latest developments on the valley’s green scene.

First and foremost, Larry McLaughlin, who heads up College of the Desert’s Desert Enterprise Center in Palm Springs, announced the facility has received a $600,000 grant from the state Economic Development Department and the California Energy Commission to keep its solar training programs going.

“They wanted us to continue the training we had already established under the clean energy traning program. We’re going to continue the utility scale solar, and also work in energy efficiency, possibly even residential (photovoltaic) or thermal,” McLaughlin said. 

Course and curriculum details are still in the works, he said, “to make sure we’re doing things that are responsive to what’s needed out there in the region. We don’t want to duplicate other people’s efforts; we don’t want to train people for industry areas that aren’t needed. We want to take good care to align program with our region.”

Keeping the center’s training programs up and running is crucial to ensure valley residents have a good shot at landing jobs on the big solar and other energy projects now getting under way — from Solar Millennium’s 1,000-megawatt Blythe project to the Sentinal natural gas peaker plant breaking ground on July 28.

Chuck McDaniel, business development representative for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 440 said the peaker plant, Solar Millennium and First Solar’s Desert Sunlight project all have local hire agreements and the union expects to put a total of 700 of its members to work.

But he said, locally, only about 150-200 are ready to get the jobs.

“We’re going to start major recruiting” for apprenticeship programs, he said. “We figure every electrician in Riverside County that wants to work and can meet our requirements will have a job.” 

Job fairs will be announced in the coming weeks, he said.

COD’s efforts to create a  pipeline for clean green jobs also got a boost in the form of a second grant — $225,000  from the Chancellor’s Office of the California Community Colleges System, McLaughlin said. The money will be used for further development of local Pathways to Success programs to develop middle school and high school programs that will segue into community college classes with an energy orientation, McLaughlin said. The goal is for COD to offer an associate’s degree with an energy-green tech focus.

McLaughlin also talked about the center’s expanding relationships with companies developing solar-related technologies, with the goal of eventually using the center as a testing facility for new products.

The center has forged a connection with Parker Hannafin, a global engineering firm based in Cleveland, which is developing new solar tracking technology — the drivers that help panels or solar troughs move with the sun.

“Parker Hannafin,  they did donate $12,000 worth of equipment that ‘s going to be part of the parabolic trough unit that we are going to build for training purposes,” McLaughlin said. ”They are also interested in the site to demonstrate the tracking drive unit.”

Nothing is signed, but McLaughlin said an engineer from the company will be in the desert in the next few weeks to check things out.

Wes Ahlgren, chief operating officer of CVEP, said these are exactly the kind of relationships the valley needs to build green tech “industry clusters.”

“The Coachella Valley is poised to accept smaller companies that help out big companies,” he said.