Rob:  Well the recent slow-down in the energy sector has led to some job layoffs for wind turbine manufacturers.  Yet industry watchers believe the construction and maintenance of these huge energy generators has nowhere to go but up.  Our Russ Jowell traveled to Woodward, Oklahoma, to attend the first class of Oklahoma’s wind tech program.
Russ:  They’ve been a fixture on the Oklahoma landscape almost longer than Oklahoma has been around. Soaring oil derricks that have revolutionized our state’s economy, thanks in large part to the hands and muscles of thousands of dedicated Oklahomans without whom, this revolution would not have been possible.   Fast forward to 2009, and we see yet another energy revolution taking place in Oklahoma, one that like its predecessor, will need the hands and muscles of dedicated Oklahomans if it is to succeed.
Greg Adams:  If we develop anywhere near the amount of wind power that is forecasted for western Oklahoma, southwestern Kansas, Texas panhandle, we’re going to have a very extreme need for trained personnel to care for these turbines.
Russ:  Enter Greg Adams, an Oklahoma native who knows a thing or two about wind turbines and what it takes to operate them.
Adams:  I got involved in wind energy because I grew up in western Oklahoma.  And as a young kid hanging on to barb wire fences just to stay in one spot, I figured something needed to be done with this much power.
Russ:  So Greg began investing in wind turbines, and after building a successful wind development company is now spending his evenings, here at High Plains Technology Center, bringing up the first generation of Oklahoma trained wind technicians. 
Dwight Hughes:  If anybody’s been in northwest Oklahoma, you understand that we have plenty of wind, so we just felt like as the wind industry started to grow it was a perfect fit for High Plains Technology Center to offer a wind technician program.
Russ:  Dwight Hughes is deputy superintendent of High Plains Technology Center, and says that the wind technician program has come at just the right time to meet what will be a soaring demand.
Hughes:  They’re saying that they’re going to need, you know, about 90 technicians a year until, like, the year 2024.  And so, and that’s just around here.  So, you know, then you expand that clear across the wind belt from Texas clear up to the Dakotas, there’s just a huge demand.  And so we felt, where High Plains sits, as a technology center, it was just the perfect match for us to get into that wind training.
Phil Berkenbile:  Well we want to find our and provide not only the people out there building these towers and the transmission lines with the best possible guidance that we can and the training, but also we are looking at educational programs for the landowners.
Russ:  Dr. Phil Berkenbile, head of the career tech system, says that one of the program’s goals is not only to educate those working on the turbines, but also those whose land these turbines will be built on.
Berkenbile:  What’s a good lease?  You know we’ve heard everything from 3500 to 4000 dollars a year per tower.  Well in some parts of the state, they’re only talking about 3 to 4 hundred dollars a year. 
Russ:  And growing along with the wind developments in western Oklahoma comes the economic developments that will follow for towns in the area like Woodward.
Laverne Phillips:  The opportunity to have wind energy, the expansion of that industry in northwest Oklahoma means so much not only for the future of Woodward, Oklahoma, but to help solve our nation’s energy crisis.
Russ:  Laverne Phillips is president of the Woodward Industrial Foundation, and says that growth in the wind industry means growth for Oklahoma’s high plains.
Phillips:  There’s several components of what wind will do for you.  Number one, it’s leasing the land for the land owners.  The development companies come in and do that.  Number two is when they actually site a project and start building, and you’ve got all the construction jobs. That helps your hospitality industry.  Companies will be in your communities, spending money that will create sales tax.  But I think the big issue is, once these facilities are built, the transmission lines and the towers when they go up, they add so much ad valorem tax which benefits the public schools and also county government, and that is something that will just pay big dividends in the future.
Russ:  A new venture that signals the dawning of a new era in Oklahoma.
Rob:  And you can see first-hand just what it takes to construct one of these giant turbines.  Simply head to our website and click on this week’s value added.