A Charlotte, N.C.–based company has announced it awarded a Central Austin private high school with a $20,000 grant to help improve its energy efficiency and job training program.

The Duke Energy Foundation awarded the grant to San Juan Diego Catholic High School, located at 800 Herndon Lane. The school will use the funding to enhance its Corporate Work Study Program that provides students with opportunities to develop job skills in professional settings throughout Austin. All SJDCHS students are required to participate in the program.

"[The program] grooms students for the real world by training them for the corporate work force at a young age," SJDCHS Principal Pam Jupe said. "We greatly appreciate Duke Energy's funding because it will help ensure that our students are well-prepared to join the workforce in Austin."

The Duke Energy Foundation is the philanthropic extension of Duke Energy Renewables, a company that announced in September 2011 it will build a 202-megawatt wind farm—dubbed the Los Vientos II Windpower Project—in Willacy County, Texas. The farm will serve Austin Energy customers under the terms of a 25-year power purchase agreement.

"Since all of the power generated at Duke Energy's latest large-scale Texas wind farm will go to serve Austin Energy customers, we thought the time was right to demonstrate our commitment to the Austin community," said Milton Howard, Duke Energy Renewables vice president and lead developer for the wind farm, which is expected to be completed later this year.

Duke Energy Renewables currently operates 10 wind farms and 11 solar farms in eight states, totaling approximately 1,000 megawatts in electric-generating capacity.