May 5, 2009

How High Will You Go? :o)

One man in the classroom earned more than $100,000 framing tract homes during the building heyday. Another installed pools and piloted a backhoe. Behind him sat a young father who made a good living swinging a hammer.

But that was before construction jobs vanished. Hard times have brought them to a classroom to learn a different trade. Tonight's lesson: how to avoid death and dismemberment.

This is Wind Technology Boot Camp at a local Community College, where eight weeks of study and $1,000 in tuition might lead to a job repairing mammoth wind turbines.

The work requires smarts and stamina. It is potentially dangerous. Candidates need good knees, a cool head -- and a stomach for heights.

"I've seen guys just freeze halfway up the tower," said the instructor. For those who can hack it, starting pay ranges from $15 to $20 an hour. Crack technicians can make six figures a year. Wind farms are hiring and probably will be for years to come.

As in previous recessions, this economic downturn is boosting enrollment at community colleges and vocational schools. Classrooms are swelling with workers from hard-hit industries who are looking to change careers.

Educators say the difference this time is the surging interest in so-called green-collar jobs. President Obama wants to create 5 million of them over the next decade. What isn't clear is how the U.S. is going to prepare this work force.

Technical education for renewable-energy workers is scarce, particularly for the fast-growing wind industry. Only a handful of wind programs operate in community colleges.

The U.S. last year surpassed Germany as the world's No. 1 wind-powered nation, with more than 25,000 megawatts in place. Wind could supply 20% of America's electricity needs by 2030, up from less than 1% now, according to a recent Energy Department report.

California is the No. 3 wind state, behind Texas and Iowa. A slew of developments are in the pipeline. The economic crisis has dampened growth in the renewable sector. But the U.S. wind industry is clamoring for skilled technicians to maintain the 30,000 wind turbines already in the ground. The best workers combine the knowledge of a top-flight mechanic with the endurance of an alpine mountaineer.

"It's like [working on] a school bus on top of a really long pole," said a marketing manager for sensing and inspection technologies for General Electric Co., one of the world's top turbine makers. "It's complex. This isn't some Jiffy Lube job." A typical 1.5-megawatt GE unit costs $2.5 million installed. It sits about 30 stories above the ground at the hub, where its three 100-foot-long blades connect to the tower.

Just behind the hub is the housing for the gearbox, drive train and other components. Think of this as the wind technician's office. Except there's no elevator. Reaching it means climbing rung by rung on a narrow steel ladder attached to the inside of the tower. An agile worker can do it in less than 10 minutes, several times a day. "You earn every dollar you make in this industry. It's plain hard work."

Advice to hopefuls: Quit smoking. Lose that gut. And don't try this with a hangover. Technicians must be hyper-vigilant in an occupation that combines dizzying heights, tight spaces, high-voltage electricity and spinning metal. Fatalities are rare but unspeakably gruesome. Workers have plunged to their deaths, been electrocuted and been ground to a pulp by rotating machinery.

9 comments:

  1. In this day and age, I think people will do whatever they have to, to survive. It's not a bad skill to learn. My hope is there will be many, many more jobs available due to the wind turbines. (Hugs)Indigo

    ReplyDelete
  2. Remember my late (great) cousin Donny? He worked on signal towers and other high towers like that. We could never believe he was willing to climb those towers, but he was pretty fearless in a lot of ways. A little crazy, too, but in a good way. I miss him. :( And yes, he made a very good living at it. They should recruit guys like Donny for wind turbine work.

    ReplyDelete
  3. If I was younger, I would take this dare! Sounds very interesting and technical as well.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Ken,
    Very interesting post. I was surprised to see California passed up by other states. California went full-bore into such things as solar & wind power in the '60's (earliest I remember it anyway).

    Interesting too the U.S. garnered the #1 slot in the world for wind power.

    Dirk
    THE FIRST AMENDMENT, NOT POLITICALLY CORRECT II
    http://tsalagiman2.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Ken,
    I wouldn't take that job even if it was a straight shoot to the top!
    Best,
    Marty

    ReplyDelete
  6. I like this! I wouldn't do it, though. Did you see the episode of Dirty Jobs in which the guy worked for a day at the top of a wind turbine? Oh no, not for me!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Then why do I have secretaries at medical practices making $17 an hour complaining if they have to work 1/2 hour extra at the end of the day(late patient) or saying they have too many phones to answer? Do some of those people want a job interview? It comes with insurance & a pension plan too. ~Mary

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm not afraid of heights but come on!! You couldn't pay me enough for a job like that. Well, if I had to feed my kids maybe...lol. Interesting entry.
    Hugs, Joyce

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sorry, this job is definitely not for me, even if I could afford the grand. You'll have to find someone else. DB

    ReplyDelete

Tell Me What You Think, Don't Make me go Rogue on you :o)