Offers a Wind System Technician Program.
Wind Turbine Technician
Careers & Salary
The growing demand for wind energy has created the need for highly
skilled wind turbine technicians. The
technician must use computers, have an understanding of hydraulics,
electricity and meteorology. Although many wind turbine technicians have experience as a welder, many
wind technicians
complete two-year education programs in wind technology. The Wind
Technician must work
250 feet above the ground. Travel is often a big part of the job.
Based on current positions, wind turbine
technicians
earn $17.00 to $27.00 per hour.
Wind turbine
A wind turbine is
a rotating machine which
converts the
kinetic energy
in
wind into
mechanical energy.
If the mechanical energy
is used directly by
machinery, such as a
pump or grinding stones,
the machine is usually
called a
windmill. If
the mechanical energy is
then converted to
electricity,
the machine is called a
wind generator,
wind turbine,
wind power unit (WPU),
wind energy converter
(WEC), or
aerogenerator.
This article discusses
electric power
generation machinery.
Windmill
discusses machines used
for grain-grinding,
water pumping, etc. The
article on
wind power
describes turbine
placement, economics and
public concerns. The
wind energy
section of that article
describes the
distribution of wind
energy over time, and
how that affects
wind-turbine design. See
environmental concerns
with electricity
generation
for discussion of
environmental problems
with wind-energy
production
Wind power
Wind
power is the conversion of wind
energy into a useful form, such as
electricity, using
wind turbines.
At the end of 2008, worldwide
nameplate
capacity of wind-powered
generators was 120.8
gigawatts.[1]
Wind
energy has historically been used
directly to propel
sailing ships
or converted into mechanical energy
for pumping water or grinding grain,
but the principal application of
wind power today is the generation
of electricity. Large scale
wind farms
are typically connected to the local
electric power
transmission network,
with smaller turbines being used to
provide electricity to isolated
locations. Utility companies
increasingly
buy back
surplus electricity
produced by small domestic turbines.
Wind energy as a power source is
favoured by many
environmentalists as an
alternative to
fossil fuels,
as it is plentiful,
renewable,
widely distributed, clean, and
produces lower
greenhouse gas
emissions, although the
construction of wind farms is not
universally welcomed due to their
visual impact and other
effects on the
environment. The
intermittency
of wind seldom creates problems when
using wind power to supply a low
proportion of total demand. Where
wind is to be used for a moderate
fraction of demand, additional costs
for compensation of intermittency
are considered to be modest.[2]
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
