contact: Kathleen Hohl, Communications and Events Director
414-297-6208 (office); 414-235-7105 (cell); hohlk@matc.edu

MILWAUKEE (June 17, 2010) - The United States Department of Energy and U.S. Senator Herb Kohl announced today that Milwaukee Area Technical College is one of four Wisconsin educational institutions/companies that will receive funding from the Department of Energy for Advanced Energy-Efficient Building Technologies and Commercial Building Training Programs. Fifty-eight projects will receive more than $76 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

MATC’s program will expand existing training programs for commercial energy commissioning agents and energy auditors. MATC will work with UW-Milwaukee to develop an integrated workforce training model and collaborative curriculum. The project also will provide a career ladder for MATC graduates to continue their education at UW-Milwaukee, further preparing students to advance to engineers and/or managers. The project includes installation of an intelligent lighting lab, a microturbine, and solar thermal heating devices that will provide students with hands-on experience in these new technologies.

Dr. Joseph Jacobsen, the principal investigator on the grant, commented that the initiative provides students with a foundation needed to be successful in a variety of energy careers and degrees. "Energy engineering, alternative energy, renewable energy and smart energy systems are just a few disciplines that share this important basis," Jacobsen said.

"This grant moves us toward a more sustainable energy future by providing students with the expertise to cut costs by improving residential, commercial and industrial operations and designs. The curriculum and equipment from this grant will produce advanced energy auditors and commissioning agents, energy systems technicians, managers and operators who will fill a diversity of rewarding technical and innovative occupations."

MATC was one of five selections in the “Building Energy Commission Agents/Auditors" category.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu remarked, “These projects will help the United States lead the world in advancing energy-efficient technologies. Energy-efficient commercial buildings will help our country cut its carbon emissions and energy costs while the training programs will upgrade the skills of the current workforce and attract the next generation to careers in the emerging clean-energy economy."

Senator Kohl commented, “Part of our national energy strategy must be utilizing technology so we use less energy. This funding will create jobs by making our buildings more energy-efficient, with a goal of buildings that use no energy. It also offers a new generation of workers the education and job training skills they need to be successful in the new green economy,” Kohl said.

For more information, visit http://www.energy.gov/9152.htm.

For information about MATC's Energy Engineering Technology certificate, please see http://matc.edu/student/offerings/Energy%20Engineer.html.