Program Design & Delivery

Technical College of the Lowcountry Drives Renewable Energy Development

South Carolina’s Technical College of the Lowcountry (TCL) serves a large and very diverse community alongside the Intracoastal Waterway - an energy-poor region with high electricity demand. The region’s power plants typically buy coal or natural gas from beyond state borders, but recently area industries have set their sights on using more sustainable energy resources. For example, the U.S. Navy and Marines—a strong presence in the region—have set a goal of producing 50 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. As a result, over the past several years, TCL has stepped beyond its traditional role of educator to become one of the leading regional partners in bringing renewable and sustainable energy and practices to the area.

Building Green Technology Programs
 

TCL partnered with key employers from the building industry to leverage a $100,000 Wal-Mart grant to redesign the college’s Building Technology Program to include tidal, geo-thermal, solar, and wind power generation. Ranging from eight to nineteen credits, new green certificates include:

• Basic Construction Technician
• Finishing Electrician
• Foundations/Framing/Renovations
• Green Residential Construction Management
• Indoor Environmental Quality
• Plumbing
• Rough-In Electrician

The State Technical College System has provided $98,000 to enhance TCL’s renewable energy training curriculum, and the S.C. Department of Energy awarded $25,000 to jump-start a Geothermal Training Center at the college.

Providing Hands-On Training

Key to TCL’s training effort is incorporating hands-on active demonstration models of each energy source on its own campus. “The students really want to get out and work and see, ‘Can I do this?’” said Everett Feight, TLC’s division dean for industrial technologies. “It validates everything they are learning in class.”

The college has purchased renewable energy equipment and constructed an 85-foot wind turbine on campus, reducing electrical costs and providing practical experience for the student who built it. Although largescale solar power technology has been costly to execute in South Carolina’s haze and humidity, Santee Cooper, the state-owned electric and water utility, and local distributor Palmetto Electric, funded a 20 kilowatt, $230,000 solar installation at the college.

Beyond TCL’s campus, one local construction company is supplying classrooms to TCL students at residential construction sites for 70 green homes with energy efficiency, water conservation, and affordability in mind. On another front, the largest LEED project in the state, a 48-unit development, is partnering with TLC to create a 3-credit/40-hour student internship.

Tapping Unique Natural Resources

Taking advantage of its location, TCL has installed an electrical generator on the Beaufort River to confirm the potential of tidal energy. The college resides on one of the largest natural harbors and tidal marsh/rivers systems on the East Coast, with tides ranging from 6 to 8 feet every six hours and a flow rate that makes such small tidal generators feasible for certain projects. The project generates 60 watts per hour at full tide, powering 1,000 LED lights for the college’s holiday tree in December. “This pilot initiative showed us the concept works,” said Feight. “Additional designs will be tested this coming spring, and workshops will be planned so community residents and business firms in our area can implement this energy saving alternative.” Wind power could be next—with enough Atlantic wind blowing steadily off the shallow continental shelf to power 1 million homes or more.

TLC will continue offering green job training programs to support the workforce demand, and to show by example how renewable technologies can be cost-effective and efficient.

If you would like more information, please follow the links and contact below:

www.tcl.edu/green
http://www.tcl.edu/industrial/GreenTechnologyatTCL.asp
http://www.tcl.edu/Future_Student/Programs_of_Study/Industrial_Technology/index.asp
http://www.tcl.edu/Continuing_Education/Green.asp
http://www.tcl.edu/Continuing_Education/green_000.asp

Everett Feight
Division Dean
efeight@tcl.edu

Wendy Walls
Director of Business and Community Relations
wwalls@tcl.edu