Wind Turbines

zig

Hi,
Im just wondering is there anyone here working in the wind turbine industry, I have experience as a technician, but its in aircraft maintenance, id like to talk to someone in this industry to see might I have similar experience.
Any help would be great , cheers

WAPAIC

I'm in the industry but not the operations side of things. I'd imagine your skills are probably transferable to a point but you may find you are missing out on the electrical/high voltage side of things. That said there is certainly a wide range of people operating turbines with very different backgrounds so I wouldn't let that stop you. There are lots of turbines and very few people with a qualification or experience that is directly relevant.

The Irish Wind Energy Association have a strong focus on jobs and skills - get on their website for a look and maybe give them a ring for advice.

Siemsn, GE, Vestas, Enercon all have Irish turbine operations here - that'd be my starting point. Many of the turbine manufacturers run course for new hires. My limited understanding of these is that they are designed to bring a person with skills in one aspect of turbine maintenance up to speed on the other skills required.

Don't forget that turbines tend to be far away from civilization and you'll probably end up on shift work or call; turbines down = lost revenue even in the middle of the night.

zig

Hey WAPAIC, thanks for the reply, Im gonna check out those places now online. I probably should have elaborated in my original post , it was electrics I was dealing with on the aircraft, as opposed to mechanics so I have at least the basics down anyway. I'll contact some of these people and ask them what my best route would be. I notice people are doing degrees now in renewable energy/wind turbines etc. Id imagine these type of people would be favourable but I guess they dont have anyway maintenance experience.
Cheers

J-W

Hi zig / WAPAIC I am a currently unemployed aircraft engineer In Munster region and was thinking of a career change to wind turbine maintenance as there seems to be a more stable future in it.So if ya find out any info on how to get started in the industry please post and I will do like wise.

zig

No problem JW , will do.

WAPAIC

Just be careful with some of those renewable energy courses - a lot of them are very general and really only demonstrate that you can (a) complete such a course and (b) are really really interested in the area. Many of them are more specific of course - from the sounds of your comments here that will be what you are after. Ask to speak to people who have done the course if possible - find out where they are now and what benefit they saw in the course. There are so many courses around that you might as well do the right one for you.

The other thing to check is that there are wind farms near you....turbine maintenance might not be the best job for someone living in Dublin for example - nearest wind farm is probably a good hour and a half from the south side. In fact if you live in the stix, you may as well drive up to your nearest wind farm and find out whose name is on the door - you'll be looking for both the project owner (e.g Coillte) and the project operator (usually the turbine manufacturer, written on the sie of the turbine usually).