Oregon is looking to boost the renewable-energy workforce and train people in energy-efficient installations, in an effort to lower the state’s overall greenhouse gas emissions.

The Oregon Department of Energy recently announced a $2 million Energy Workforce Training program aimed at providing technical education on energy-efficient installations for new and existing workers and contractors. The funding will go to community colleges, career and technical education programs at high schools, as well as trade organizations that provide apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs and community-based organizations.

The program will provide training in four categories —

• Heating, ventilation and air conditioning, or HVAC
• Home energy auditing and modeling
• Contractor business development
• Home energy efficiency upgrades

“This training for contractors will increase their ability to identify what energy efficiencies are most appropriate for each home and determine the correct size of equipment needed and provide a real quality installation for homeowners,” said Josie Cardwell, the agency’s energy analyst for workforce development, energy efficiency training.

The grants are part of the Climate Resilience Package passed by the Oregon Legislature in 2023. The package is a compilation of several bills aimed at increasing community resilience, climate change adaptation and reducing the state’s greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector. The legislation also includes a goal of installing 500,000 heat pumps across the state by 2030.

According to the ODE, 34% of the state’s overall carbon emissions come from the building sector.

Cardwell said these specific grants are tied to the Climate Resilience Package’s greenhouse gas emission and energy burden reduction goals. She said about 32% of Oregonians are considered energy burdened.

“Which means that the household spends more than 6% of their income on energy,” Cardwell said.

That could be heating or cooling your home or using the water heater.

But the grants will also help fill a much-needed workforce gap.

“We don’t have enough people to install 500,000 heat pumps, and beyond not having the workforce to install those heat pumps a good portion of the workforce is slated to retire within the next five years,” she said. “So this is kind of an urgent need to get people trained and ready to help.”

There is also a push to train contractors to be able to identify other energy efficiency needs in a home.

“We want them to be trained to go in and look and see, ‘Ok, how can we make this house healthy? How is this heat pump going to actually run to its greatest efficiency?’” she said. “That might mean they also need insulation, or they need the roof fixed, so we want to go in and really help homes to be energy efficient and to be safe, healthy homes for the inhabitants.”

The state department of energy expects to award grants between $150,000 to $400,000 through a competitive process.

At least $800,000 of the $2 million in funds will go toward grantees that will focus on providing training to people who come from underserved communities or that will be serving these communities. The additional funds do not have that requirement, Cardwell said, but the agency will prioritize programs that will serve environmental justice communities or communities most impacted by carbon emissions and pollution.

ODE is accepting applications from community colleges and other groups that want to offer workforce training through Jan. 17.