The Wind Technician Boom is Here

July 31st, 2008 by Joshua S Hill

Looking for a job? Don’t want to do much in the way of training? Want to help out the environment? You may be the perfect person to become a wind technician! At least, that would definitely seem to be the way of things if the latest news is to be believed.

Apparently, community colleges in North Dakota, among other states, are beginning to train wind turbine technicians; those who are trained in maintaining and repairing those giant wind turbines that make us all that lovely energy.

“The demand (for wind technicians) is such that some (colleges) have been trying to keep companies away from the program because they want everybody to graduate first,” said Christine Real de Azua, a spokeswoman for the American Wind Energy Association. “In some cases, students are being picked up after only a couple of months.”

According to that same association, there are now more than 25,000 wind turbines out there, with nowhere near enough people to service them.

And apparently, the biggest challenge for the community colleges is getting their students to stay around for the whole course. No, they don’t get tired of it. They get hired!

But beware if you choose the life of a wind technician. It isn’t for everyone, says Dwaine Higgins, who recently graduated from a college training program in Iowa Lakes. “You never know what you may have to deal with,” he said. “When you are 300 feet in the air, it is not always easy to get a hand from another person.”

It comes as no surprise to many of us that new jobs are being created through the use of environmentally friendly processes. And in a day and age where the unemployment rate is crashing through the roof, one would imagine – or at least hope – that such other trends will become evident as the months and years go by, and advances and steps forward are made.

Quotes thanks to MSNBC article ‘Community colleges tap into wind energy boom.’

Image credit: EdTarwinski









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