Job Training

Several funding opportunities in the fields of energy efficiency and renewable energy are currently available!  See below for details:

EE/RE JOB TRAINING FUNDS:

Kentucky Home Performance is offering incentives to contractors who participate in an upcoming training to become certified through the national Building Performance Institute. The training will be held May 24th-26th in Louisville. In order to be eligible to work as a contractor doing EE/RE on residential properties through the Ky Home Performance program, you must be BPI-certified.

Training incentives include:
    •    $1,000 available for up to 80% of the cost of training & certification to obtain BPI training for Building Analyst Certification for the first 100 contractors or home auditors trained under the program
    •    $2,000 available for equipment purchases up to 80% of the cost of qualified equipment for the first 50 contractors or companies participating in the KY Home Performance program. Terms and conditions apply.

Visit www.kyhomeperformance.org for more information.

EE/RE ENERGY PROJECT FUNDS:

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) is a regional economic development agency that represents a partnership of federal, state, and local government. ARC just announced the fourth round of a grant competition this week to assist Appalachian communities in leveraging renewable-energy and energy-efficiency resources to revitalize their economies. ARC expects to provide eight to ten awards of up to $75,000 each, for a total of $545,000 in awards, to successful applicants.

Aims of the grants may include -
    •    Preparation and adoption of a community energy plan by a local government jurisdiction.
    •    Implementation of a renewable-energy or energy-efficiency project such as:
    •    Production and/or use of renewable energy, including biofuels, biomass, solar, or wind energy, to include local siting of production facilities.
    •    Distribution of renewable energy, to include customer purchasing commitments.
    •    Expansion or start-up of "clean energy" businesses, including support for business incubation programs or targeted business financing programs.
    •    New construction or renovations that follow "green building" and LEED certification guidelines.
    •    Installation of energy-efficiency equipment in public or nonprofit facilities.
Nonprofit organizations, government entities, and public education institutions located within the Appalachian Region are eligible to apply. Private, for-profit organizations are not eligible to apply.

Visit www.arc.gov/energy for more information.

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The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has announced a call for proposals related to innovative, scalable strategies for energy efficiency retrofit programs or policies that address the existing building stock in the United States.

Funding priorities include but are not limited to sustainable and scalable business models for implementing energy efficiency retrofits; policies or programs that seek to advance aggregation of disparate or fragmented opportunities in energy efficiency retrofits to increase the energy savings potential; innovative financing models and other mechanisms to ease upfront costs of efficiency improvements or increase the attractiveness of investments in energy efficiency; policies or programs to secure greater energy efficient performance in buildings such as through benchmarking or improved operations and management; policies or programs to drive deep energy efficiency retrofits in existing buildings; policies or programs to address split incentives; and mechanisms to increase the effectiveness of and property owner participation in state, local, utility-sponsored, or privately-sponsored energy efficiency programs.

Proposals may be targeted to any particular barrier or segment of the buildings market (e.g., office, commercial, institutional, retail, residential, single-family, or multi-family). Research to help formulate programs or policies to address barriers is eligible as long as the path to implementation or adoption is clear.

The foundation will invite full proposals based on from pre-proposals, with grant l ranging from $100,000 to $350,000 each. Up to a total of $3 million in grants will be awarded.
Applicants must be U.S. nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations.

Visit
http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/rfp/rfp_item.jhtml?id=291600012 for more information.

-Article taken from Kentucky Housing Corporation

Kentucky Home Performance, the quickly developing home energy retrofit program at Kentucky Housing Corporation, uses a nationally certified training system for approved professionals from the Building Performance Institute (BPI). Here’s their online address: www.bpi.org. The current standard is the “BPI Building Analyst Certification”. Those who get the training first will be well placed to implement this program when it is operational (60-90 days).
 
Kentucky is a national leader in setting up a statewide system for training and standards in home energy audit and retrofit work. Aside from training there is also a ‘Quality Assurance’ component that will assist the training system to ensure that professions working in Kentucky homes will meet minimum ‘best practice’ standards. As the program is finalized you can follow our progress online: www.KYHomePerformance.org.
 
The required BPI “Building Analyst” Certification is a course with field work and a test. Various trainers use a 4-day “boot-camp” up to 10-days of training (KCTCS).
 
The first scheduled training will be hosted by the Home Builders Association of Lexington in April and May. There are rebates available for those who take the class and become certified. Up to $1000.
 
Class # 1 – Four Days – for Hers Raters only to become Building Analysts – April 27 – 30 – Class to be capped at 20 Students - $1,250 per student
 
Class # 2 – Six Days – From the ground up to become Building Analysts – May 10 – 15 – Class to be capped at 20 students - $1,450 per student

Sign-up is available at: www.hbalexington.com. Call Sandy Beck at 859-273-5117 for more information. KCTCS will be providing training in the near future. You can find KCTCS information at their website for training: www.kctcs.edu/Workforce_Solutions/.