Four Northwest Ohio firms were among five companies that received a total of $1.7 million in the first round of work force training grants from the Energizing Careers Program awarded by the State of Ohio.

The awards were announced by Ohio Department of Development Director Lisa Patt-McDaniel at the University of Toledo on Oct. 5. The grants will fund training for Ohio workers in the advanced energy manufacturing industry.

“These training dollars will help workers gain new skills in growing industries and help keep Ohio companies on the cutting edge of their fields,” said Gov. Ted Strickland in a statement about the grants.

The $6 million Energizing Careers Program was launched in June to train Ohio’s work force for careers in the growing advanced energy manufacturing business in the state.

The grants were funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor as part of the State Energy Sector Partnership Training program of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

First Solar Inc. received the largest grant of up to $1 million for training workers who manufacture photovoltaic modules at the company’s facility in Perrysburg. First Solar will work with Owens Community College to develop training programs for those workers, which will be conducted at the company’s facility and the college. Owens and First Solar worked together to apply for the grant from the state, according to officials from the college and company.

Buckeye Silicon Inc. of Toledo will receive up to $239,000 for training workers to produce solar grade crystalline polysilicon used in making solar panels. Nextronex Energy Systems of Millbury will receive up to $210,000 for training workers to manufacture the Ray-Max 150 Solar Inverter and Ray-Max Energy Maximization System for the solar energy industry. Xunlight Corporation of Toledo will receive up to $229,000 to train workers to develop and manufacture high-performance, flexible and lightweight solar modules. The company is rapidly expanding its manufacturing capacity as the demand for solar modules used in small-to-large scale energy generation systems continues to grow.

The fifth company to receive a training grant, UniControl Inc. is located in Cleveland.

Tags: alternative energy, Energy, NWO, solar, Strickland

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 16th, 2010 at 1:02 pm and is filed under Education, Toledo Business Link.
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