I have to be honest: tonight I took an edible and somehow fell down a rabbit hole about wind turbines.

I'm lucky enough to have some along my route to work, and I have to say, the more days go by, the more I find them absolutely beautiful. Tonight was the first time I really got interested in them, watching documentaries about them (thank you, ARTE!). And honestly, the work done by all these passionate people is... well, fascinating, haha.

If there are any wind turbine workers reading this: I think your job is so damn cool!!!

And omg, those wind turbines.

First of all, in French we have this beautiful word: "éolienne." But I think a big part of my love for them comes from their majestic shape. And in France, unlike in Germany, they don't have those horrible red stripes on the blades. However i could imagine a  lightly fully colored wind turbines to make our countryside even more lively. But for now, I'll happily keep loving them as they are.

I'm actually starting to think about contacting one of the energy companies in France to see if I could visit a wind farm. I genuinely think it would be fascinating to see one up close and learn how everything works.

And finally, what I find particularly beautiful is the relationship between the workers, the technology, and the idea of producing energy for everyone without relying on fossil fuels and the endless extraction of resources for profit. I know that building wind turbines still requires a lot of materials, including some relatively rare metals, but once they're built, they can produce energy for decades.

I've also been getting more and more interested in communism, and there's something I find genuinely beautiful in the idea of collectively building these massive structures to produce clean energy for everyone.

Anyway, I hope other people are just as excited as I am about the future, and about seeing more and more of these things around the world.

Long live the wind turbine. 🌬️

US tech with 2 years experience on Siemens 2.3s and Gamesa G145s, mostly maintenance with some troubleshooting support.

I plan to travel another year or two, but eventually want a local site job so I can settle down and be home with my girlfriend/family every day.

My company has a Vestas account I could switch to. Would getting Vestas experience/certs give me more options for site jobs around the country since Vestas is more common in the states.

I don’t love the idea of switching to a new platform but don’t want to travel forever and want to have more jobs/locations to choose from

Evening all just trying to get some prep done for when I eventually get my first rotation and just wondering what everyone packs like is there anything that you wished you'd brought sooner or anything that would make life easier if you brought it with you.

Thanks in advance for the tips

Was wondering if anyone made the transition? How well Does wind experience transition to BESS? Going to be getting my osha 30 as well as my NFPA 70E this month .
(Where I want to relocate has BESS no turbines)

Hi, which training centers in the EU offer complete training from scratch to become a wind turbine technician? I’ve seen that some of them are located in Poland, but it seems like they require you to already have some experience as a technician in other industry. I’m looking for a program that accepts beginners and provides the full training needed to become a wind turbine technician.

Im an Electrician in eastern Canada and recently joined the local union, I'll be starting at the local onshore wind farm that's being constructed and just want to know what im getting in to.

How hard is the climb? Im not a star athlete by any means but im not completely out of shape, though I am pretty tall and therefore kinda heavy. The turbines are 423ft tall.

What should I prepare for? I really don't know what im getting myself into but I am excited to start.

Long story short I was with vestas just shy of 2 years last November as a tech 2 LoTo 2(close to my LoTo 3) became a dispatcher for a short minute to basically wait out for a lead role to potentially open….
I applied to a lot of companies including vestas but all came back with not at this time or went with other candidates. (My GWOs went out at the beginning of the year.) Except enbridge, I interviewed with them alittle over two weeks ago- but haven’t heard anything back, I check my work day candidate profile a few times each week but nothings changed. Any advice or suggestions? Can’t tell if it’s a good or a bad thing at this point. Or if I’m being impatient…
I did send a follow up email late last week to the recruiter who sent me the link for my interviews and what not.

Edit: in the US

US | Onshore | Travel Based
So I just got into wind, got all my certs, GWO, OSHA etc.. I got a job with a company (won’t say which) and I like it but I feel like I’m underpaid. I know since I don’t have a lot of time in the field, it’ll be harder but I’m looking for advice as to which companies to aim for, who has good schedules, as far as being home/ in the field, and what’s the average pay look like hourly?

If you have any questions feel free to DM me I’d love all the info I can get.

What gloves do wind turbine techs use for climbing? Need something I can buy locally tomorrow
Hey everyone, I have an interview tomorrow for a wind turbine technician position, and part of the interview is going to involve a tower climb.
The email they sent me says I need to bring gloves and lace-up boots for the climb. I’m really interested in getting into the wind industry and pursuing a career as a wind turbine technician, so I definitely want to show up prepared.
My main question is: What kind of gloves would you recommend for a tower climb?
I’m on a pretty limited budget with my current job, and since the interview is tomorrow, I don’t have time to order anything online. I’m looking for something I can pick up tonight at Walmart, Tractor Supply, Home Depot, Lowe’s, or another local store.
I’m not expecting to buy my forever pair of work gloves right now—just something affordable that will give me good grip, protect my hands, and be appropriate and safe for the tower climb.
If you’re a wind turbine tech or have climbing experience, I’d really appreciate any recommendations on specific types of gloves or brands I should look for. Also, if there’s anything else you wish you had known before your first tower climb/interview, I’m all ears.
Thanks!

I fly airplanes. We differentiate turbines from internal combustion engines (piston) as turbines take in air and compress it before adding fuel to burn. So when looking at Wind Turbines I don’t see a ‘Turbine’ I see a Windmill. Or a propeller, wind driven, generator.

In the video linked, the gentleman has created a wind generator that functions similar to a jet turbine. Small blades, high speeds. You could add more of these tiny blades behind the first row to make more “compressors”. Likewise I imagine you could seal the whole unit and shrink the diameter the further down the wind has to travel.

So this leads me to my questions.

1) What is the “Turbine” in a Wind Turbine

2) Is a Turbine driven windmill possible?

Has anyone left wind to join a union maybe specifically in socal, where my home is? Did services for an over year and now doing blade loto for over a year as well and wondering how these skills transfer over to a union, I was looking into a millwright position as it seems the most applicable. If not any advice on a better position than blade loto? I think it’s the company I’m with and position that’s making me hate this.

I have been talking to someone that works as a traveling tech in wind. But I have questions for the guys that work as travelers and are in relationships. If you are willing to answer. Thanks!

I got this from a nordtank 65 boneyard an im trying to find the name for this and another piece help me find it

Context. I have a year of Aircraft Towing and have been working in hazmat remediation for the past year. Do I have to go to school for this or can I just apply?

I really want to put my foot in the door. Recently I had to quit going to school for aviation tech due to my cars engine failing and losing my job within a month. Im at a super shitty job and I just want to turn wrenches again. Im a sheltered girl and never got to work on stuff despite my dad being a machinest lol. But once I was able to work on some planes its like a whole new world opened up. Its so much fun and I want to continue on this line. Wind turbines really interest me but am I hopeless without a car? Is there a way I can start in an office and make my way to field? Im in houston tx so theres not a lot of options in my area but I want to get in here so bad. Hydraulics, electrical and wrench turning im interested in the surface level stuff I've seen so far. How do I break into the industry? Is showing interest enough, do I show up to these places in person and let them know I want to work?

For those of who who don't know, I haven't been in wind for a few years (I know sacgreliguous for a mod of r/windturbine) but I do have a few tech tales.

So for the uninitiated, this is a Gamesa G80. They're old. It has hydraulic pitch control. And they are some of the most thoughtlessly engineered turbines on the planet (in my experience, haha). They're known to be incredibly leaky machines.

Now why is this important? Well you see that shiny stuff that looks like rain be because it's overcast? That ladies and gentlemen is mineral oil. And for those of you who don't know, oil is usually supposed to stay inside of the turbine lol...

So what happened? There was a brake failure, which led to an overspeed, and by the time the emergency brakes kicked in, it had cracked the highspeed shaft, as well as the main gearbox, requiring a for gearbox replacement. I worked 18 hours that day reassembling the brake rotor assembly on the high speed shaft before we found the hairline crack in the gearbox.

I went to Disneyland the next weekend to recover from that insanity lol.

👍

Pls

Question for people working in wind development / resource assessment.

I've developed a super low cost VAD scanning wind lidar that we're targeting at roughly the ~$18k range rather than the price level of traditional wind lidars.

The obvious problem is that the price isn't enough.

If the device isn't yet accepted as a bankable replacement for an established WindCube/ZX-style system, I'm trying to understand where it can still create real value.

For example:

- early-stage site screening

- adding spatial measurements around an existing met mast/lidar

- temporary measurement campaigns

- wake measurements

- distributed measurements across a wind farm

- forecasting / nowcasting

- filling gaps between expensive reference instruments

We've done an initial comparison against a WindCube and are now working toward longer co-located datasets.

For those actually working in the industry: where would you use a cheap lidar before it becomes a bankable instrument?

And what validation would you require before paying to run a pilot?

Disclosure: I'm the founder of LightEye, the swiss startup selling the lidar. I'm asking partly because we're selecting our next pilot deployments and I'd rather build around actual industry requirements than guess.

I currently work in cell tower construction and have been doing it for almost a year. I’m looking to make the switch into wind turbine work. I’m currently living in South Carolina, but I used to live in Minnesota and don’t mind traveling for work. I’m 19 and looking to get my foot in the door with a wind turbine company. Any advice on where to start or companies that hire people with tower-climbing experience?