SHERMAN COUNTY, Ore. — One of the country’s largest renewable energy companies is expanding into rural Oregon: Avangrid just opened a new training center in Sherman County.
If you drive through Columba River Gorge on your way into Central Oregon, you’ll find turbines as far as the eye can see. Those wind turbines are built by Avangrid.
“We have only two of these centers — one of them is in Spain, the other right here — and we’re very pleased to be opening them here,” said Avangrid CEO Pedro Azagra.
The company has more than a dozen wind farms in Oregon and Washington, and now, they have a training center in Moro.
“We’re opening the first training center in the United States to train people in our wind facilities,” added Azagra, who said the training center will allow the company to train up to 200 people a year.
He said wind technician jobs are going to be on the rise over the next eight years. The one thing they’re focusing on its new facility is safety. When the trainees aren’t high above the ground, they’ll be inside shells called turbine nacelles. They are the size of a small bus, but it’s what holds the blades in place.
Sam Akey, one of the trainers, said that all of the company’s new hires will go through a three-week new hire training course, where they will learn everything from mechanic fabrication to advanced hydraulics and electrical. The program will now open the door for those interested in the growing future of clean energy.