BC gets $2M energy commitment from Valley Strong
Oct. 20—Valley Strong Credit Union has made a long-term, $2 million commitment to support Bakersfield College's efforts helping transition Kern County to a brighter future in renewable energy.
The Kern Community College District Board of Trustees voted unanimously Tuesday to name BC's various energy-related efforts the "Valley Strong Energy Institute" after the Bakersfield-based credit union offered to pay the sum over 20 years.
Inspired by the county's B3K prosperity collaboration, the gift is expected to help sustain the college's partnership with the National Renewable Energy Lab, including technology webinars targeting the wider community, and work such as creating a new curriculum advancing local workforce readiness as a way of enhancing regional economic competitiveness.
It is the first private gift supporting BC's energy-related workforce development, which has gone on for years and is evident in the college's engineering program as well as the more recent NREL partnership district Chancellor Sonya Christian hopes will lead to applied-research projects locally.
Valley Strong's pledge reflects the kind of cooperation envisioned by B3K collaborators trying to strengthen local job opportunities in the face of regulatory and market-based challenges to oil production and agriculture.
President and CEO Nick Ambrosini, speaking after a news conference in downtown Bakersfield, referenced B3K's efforts to upscale and rescale the local economy. He said the NREL partnership offers endless possibilities.
"We're happy to help get it off the ground," he said.
Christian said the gift will primarily support the contract with NREL. But in addition to funding additional free, public webinars, she predicted the money will help the district make progress in the area of "technology transfer" — that is, practical application of energy research being done at UCLA and other colleges.
Soon she expects to see greater focus on carbon management, which in an energy context means carbon capture and sequestration, or "CCS": taking greenhouse gas out of the air and either burying it permanently or putting it to some positive use.
On hand at Tuesday's event was a representative of local oil producer California Resources Corp., a leading proponent of CCS in the state. Joe Ashley, CRC's director of regulatory and external affairs, noted that besides proposing multibillion-dollar carbon-burial projects in California, the company aims to achieve a number of sustainability measures in line with recent climate policies out of Sacramento.
BC's newly named institute is envisioned initially as an NREL "virtual campus" at BC that Christian said would one day become a physical place for learning about renewable energy.
She told reporters Tuesday that KCCD's energy initiative is part of an effort by community colleges to redefine the workforce-development and economic-advancement landscape. Instead of responding to changing times, she said, KCCD will actively help bring jobs to Kern.
"We need to be a player in the kinds of jobs available," she said.
