by Brianna Crandall — June 24, 2011—The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced on June 16 the availability of more than $30 million to train undergraduate- and graduate-level engineering students in manufacturing efficiency to help them become the nation’s next generation of industrial energy efficiency experts. Through the Industrial Assessment Center program, university teams across the country will gain practical training and skills that will enable them to conduct energy assessments in a broad range of manufacturing facilities and help them compete in today’s economy. These groups of student engineers will help local companies and factories to reduce energy waste, save money, and become more economically competitive.
Through these university-based Industrial Assessment Centers, engineering students will receive extensive training in industrial processes, energy assessment procedures, and energy management principles, which will be put to use working directly with small and medium-sized industrial and manufacturing facilities around their communities. Under this competitive funding opportunity, 20 to 30 universities will be selected as Industrial Assessment Centers. Each IAC will be expected to train at least 10 to 15 students per year, conduct approximately 20 energy assessments annually, and perform extensive followup reporting, tracking, implementation, and management-improvement activities. IAC’s will be expected to promote interaction with private sector partners that could provide valuable workforce development support, such as scholarships and internship opportunities. Applications are due by Tuesday, August 2, 2011.
The Industrial Assessment Program has had a rich history of training students and performing energy assessments for small-to-medium manufacturing plants for more than 30 years. Nearly 3,000 students have graduated from the Industrial Assessment Center program and more than 60 percent have gone on to careers in the energy industry. From the program’s inception in 1976 through 2009, the university teams have conducted nearly 16,000 energy assessments at U.S. manufacturing plants nationwide. These assessments have helped save over 500 trillion BTUs of energy and have helped participating manufacturers save more than $3.8 billion in energy costs.
DOE’s Industrial Technologies Program (ITP) works to contribute practical solutions for some of the nation’s top energy challenges through a combination of transformative research and development and targeted education and assistance in the industrial and manufacturing sectors.
