CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A program that helps low-income residents save money and fuel by improving their homes' energy efficiency is being expanded.
The University of Illinois will receive a nearly $1 million grant to establish one of the state's first weatherization training centers that could provide job training and employment to thousands of Illinois residents.
Funded through the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the grant will establish a training center on the Urbana-Champaign campus for the Illinois Home Weatherization Assistance Program.
The program trains and certifies assessors and other agency staff members from 35 local community action agencies throughout the state who perform weatherization work such as insulation, air sealing, and cleaning, repairing and replacing furnaces on qualifying residences. The program also has been developing a one-week curriculum for training and certifying contractors who work in the program.
The U. of I.'s Building Research Council administers the Weatherization Training and Certification Program, which comprises seven courses and 140 hours of instruction, and has conducted the training for the past five years.
Over the past year, the BRC trained and certified about 200 workers, said Jeff Gordon, who is the project leader as well as an IHWAP training instructor and principal investigator for the BRC in Illinois' Lead-based Paint Hazard Reduction Program.
"Usually we run about three rounds of the six-week certification programs per year," Gordon said. "Last year we ran 10, so the program's been very active. We've been training people like crazy."
About 30,000 low-income residences throughout Illinois will be weatherized under IHWAP during 2010, and another 40,000 homes will receive the services during 2011, according to IHWAP estimates.
The grant funding will enable the BRC to expand the program's training and outreach by preparing instructors at Illinois' community colleges to teach the one-week energy efficiency curricula for program contractors. Gordon, who will serve as the energy efficiency center's director upon its completion, is leading development of the curricula.
Currently, IHWAP training is conducted primarily in the classroom and in the field using local residences, but the grant will enable the BRC to enhance the hands-on training portion of training with props, videos and materials that demonstrate a broader range of conditions that workers may encounter. The BRC also will develop evaluation tools for identifying other training needs and for assessing the program's effectiveness.
The new center, when it's completed, also may teach energy-efficiency courses for U. of I. students and provide research opportunities for faculty members.
A site for the facility has not been selected yet, but the facility is expected to be completed within the first year of the two-year grant.
William Rose, an architect and senior researcher at the BRC who teaches in the School of Architecture, will be responsible for designing and outfitting the center. Paul Francisco, an instructor at the BRC who has 18 years' experience in research, training and technical assistance in the fields of energy efficiency and home indoor air quality, will lead the evaluation development phase of the project and serve as the technical director of the center.
The U. of I.'s grant includes $240,000 in matching funds from the Illinois Jobs Now! program, which was signed into law by Gov. Pat Quinn July 13, as well as an in-kind match of salaries and benefits from the university.
The U. of I. is one of two Illinois colleges to receive the weatherization grants, which are part of a $29 million nationwide program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. Wilbur Wright College in Chicago also will receive $1 million under the program.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin announced the Illinois grants June 4.
The energy-efficiency center also may play a key role in another proposed federal program called HOME STAR, an incentive-based program that will provide the states with funding to make energy-saving retrofits to millions of American homes. The $6 billion program would offer rebates to homeowners of all income levels who make specific energy-saving investments in their homes, including comprehensive energy audits, insulation, duct and air sealing, and energy-efficient windows and doors.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the HOME STAR Energy Retrofit Act on May 6 and the bill now awaits action in the U.S. Senate.
"We hope that the energy-efficiency center will play a critical role in preparing Illinois to meet the training challenges implied by the HOME STAR legislation," Gordon said.
If signed into law, the HOME STAR program is expected to create 168,000 jobs in construction and manufacturing as well as other industries nationwide and help Americans save $10 billion in energy costs over the next decade while reducing global warming.
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