Wind farms need techs to keep running

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"They are all just crammed to the gills with students," said Jeremy Norton, operations, maintenance and training manager for PPM Energy.

The industry tends to draw heavily from the military and agricultural areas, which put a heavy emphasis on machinery and technical training. In Oregon, which ranks seventh in the nation for wind generation, many of the wind farms were able to take advantage of the need for jobs and training left behind in some towns where aluminum mills closed years ago.

"We're accepting a lot of people with technical skills that don't have wind experience," said Norton, whose utility fills out the employee's skills with its own training. "But if you have technical skills and wind experience you can pretty much write your own ticket in the industry and go anywhere you want to go."

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That's what attracted Matt Froese, 19, who just started the wind energy program at Cloud County Community College in Concordia, Kan. He said he hadn't heard of wind energy until an uncle who is leasing land for some wind turbines showed him some pictures.

"It kind of got me interested," Froese said. "It's a career that has a good future in it and it'll help the environment because it doesn't pollute. I figured there'd be a lot of job opportunities when I graduated."

Maybe not even that long. On the very first day of school at Columbia Gorge, one of the wind companies came to talk to the class and two students left to take jobs that afternoon.

"We've told them since that day, no more," said Tom Lieurance, renewable energy technology instructor. "We are going to wait till spring before I let any more hungry lions in to get my students."

Wind companies also face competition from other industries, particularly in Texas, the nation's leading wind producer, where wind farms fight for workers with the resurgent oil industry.

"It's not so much an issue of comparable skills (between oil and wind power), but people interested in a mechanical career," said Douglas King, who runs the wind energy program at Texas State Technical College in Sweetwater.

The competition is benefitting new hires as companies have raised salaries to attract better candidates.

Bruce Graham, who runs the Cloud County program, said he estimates technicians being hired with no training are making $15 to $20 per hour while wind energy program graduates can make $20 to $25 per hour. He said trained technicians can quickly become supervisors, who he said can make well above $25 an hour.

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"It's phenomenal," Graham said of the demand. "I could go out on the Internet and find 500 jobs right now that are open and they want someone right now."

Antonio Coutinho, chief energy management officer for wind farm developer Horizon Energy, added that training will only become more important as the turbine technology becomes more complex. The industry has no choice but to get its message out and attract the best candidates, he said.

"The growth is going to continue," Coutinho said. "In every system, every market, supply always meets demand sooner or later."

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