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Federal Stimulus Boosts Photovoltaic Work in San Diego

July 20, 2010

Contrary to the claims of some members of Congress, federal stimulus dollars are putting thousands of unemployed Americans back to work.

In upcoming issues of The Electrical Worker, on www.ibew.org and on IBEW’s Facebook  page, we will be reporting on specific projects across the country where  members  are going back to work on stimulus-funded jobs.  Here’s a story from San Diego.

David Villasenor, a San Diego, Local 569 journeyman wireman, was out of the Marines for nine years and out of work for five months before heading to Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps base north of San Diego.

Villasenor, an electrician in the Marines, was back working with his tools, thanks to the federal stimulus. In 2009, Synergy Electric, his employer, was awarded a $9 million dollar contract to install photovoltaic systems at the base under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Synergy, a woman-owned contractor in business for about 20 years, has received five stimulus-funded contracts amounting to $23 million, leading to a 50-percent increase in revenues.

Thomas Klatt, a Local 569 journeyman who had been out of work for 10 months, landed a job on a stimulus-funded project with Synergy. Says Klatt:

    We’ve been trained and ready for the photovoltaic work for years. Now with the Recovery Act, it’s just starting to come.

The photovoltaic job is completed, but two other projects receiving stimulus funds are providing ongoing work to Local 569 members at Southern Contracting – installing more than 4,000 energy efficient streetlights in Chula Vista and photovoltaic systems at municipal facilities.