Work Program Trains Unemployed Oil And Gas Workers in Solar Technology

The coal industry has been painted with a bleak brush in recent years. Production has plummeted. Plants have closed. Jobs have been lost. And while mining communities grapple with neighbors moving away, increasingly empty schools and fewer tax dollars, a separate industry is blooming: renewable energy. National rhetoric pits the two energy producers against each other. But in Delta County, one organization is targeting unemployed coal miners in the hope of transitioning them into the solar industry - and leaving politics out of the conversation. "We try to steer clear from that in our classes. We try not to get too political," said Chris Turek, spokesman for Solar Energy International. "We all can agree that the technology works and it's getting less and less expensive every year." The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment in April gave the Paonia-based solar organization a $401,000 matching grant as part of the WORK Act, legislation passed in May 2015 that aims to fill skills gaps in Colorado industries. SEI used the money to start Solar Ready Colorado, an initiative to attract and train not only unemployed miners but also veterans and workers furloughed from the oil and gas industry and other trades.