Wind Turbine Tech? Good career?

[HeavyD111]

Lethbridge College is offering a Wind turbine technician course three times a year now to fill the demand from industry..apparently they are very short of workers. Anyone know much about this field? The school makes it seem pretty good, but of course they are there to sell the seats... Any opinions?

[Jim Rome99]

John, the former head of the electrical department, told me personally that the course was a cash grab and there would never be any money in wind power.

[Cos]

Wind power is a bit of a joke to people in our industry. Most of the wind stuff is owned by O&G or power companies anyways.

Only way I see it making an impact is if Carbon Credits hit FULL bore and they need the wind to use it as an offset.



The actual job would be cool, there are some big fuckers in Copenhagen and such. But if 30 people come out every year I could see the market being saturated with talent after a year.

I took electrical tech at SAIT and feel that it would be a good program for you to look at.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[LLLimit]

To be someone who goes against the grain and have something for you to think about, here is the projected canadian wind projects for canada:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Canada

and Naturener is putting a bunch of windfarms in alberta
http://www.naturener.net/naturener/eng/index.php

On a related note of bat deaths:
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/08/25/bats-wind.html

[Cos]

Originally posted by LLLimit
To be someone who goes against the grain and have something for you to think about, here is the projected canadian wind projects for canada:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Canada

and Naturener is putting a bunch of windfarms in alberta
http://www.naturener.net/naturener/eng/index.php

On a related note of bat deaths:
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/08/25/bats-wind.html

This is going off a 2 year old report I read so my numbers may be wrong as I am going by memory.

On the books for wind projects 6000 MW
AEUB cap for wind projects for system reasons or something or other. 2000MW
New Cap after it because AUC = 6000MW

New projects, maybe 500MW.



Just because it is on the books it was free to get your name on the list. Now they have to pony up the cash lots of these are on hold or not going ahead.

[rinny]

Coming from someone who has worked in and around wind turbines....


Wind turbine work is a lot of legwork...literally. Running cables up and down 90m towers means you are constantly climbing ladders and doing all of that type of physical work. Not to say that physical work is bad, but I certainly wouldnt go to school to do something that an "unskilled" labourer could do.

I would say that you may not be doing much work on the actual generator/transformer unit work itself as I would believe that warranty type work would be done by Vestas/Supplier trained employees.

I would not go to school to solely become a wind-mill tech. At the very least, take an electrical tech and have an overall understanding of electrical systems and then find work with an employer dealing with turbines.

[Cos]

Originally posted by Cos

I took electrical tech at SAIT and feel that it would be a good program for you to look at.



Originally posted by rinny
At the very least, take an electrical tech and have an overall understanding of electrical systems and then find work with an employer dealing with turbines.


:thumbsup:

[oogaboogie]

A good place to start looking for work and information...

http://www.canwea.ca/
http://www.awea.org/

[Spoons]

You live in a province that is driven by oil...

Sure! Get into wind power!

[Rat Fink]

.

[Spoons]

Originally posted by Rat Fink


Thats pretty retarded....have you seen what is already established around Pincher Creek area and continually growing, or do you not get out of Calgary and Banff to see it?

OP, I agree with what has been posted on here.....go for electrical technologist or engineer and then go for a job in wind power as you will be far more flexible with where you can go with it.

Yeah but as stated before it's a dieing technology. It's being held along by government grants. Why would you not look towards an already existent and booming field like oil in Alberta. With BP's fuck ups, it only means more business for us up here.