Your Job: Blade Repair; one of the riskiest jobs in the wind industry. This job is often included within the role of the Wind Turbine Technician. To carry out a blade repair the technician will climb out of the hub and use rope access techniques to drop down to the necessary point on the blade. Every effort is made to ensure complete safety with technicians being attached by multiple points at all times. Blades can become damaged by wildlife and debris not to mention the extreme weather out to sea. In most instances blades are repaired in situ, however if the damage is too extreme it might be necessary to remove the blade altogether. In this role, technicians will always work in pairs and will transfer to vessels by ship.

Courses and Training:

This role requires a significant amount of skills, competency and safety training. Particularly in Working at Height, Rope Access and First Aid not to mention specific blade repair training.

It is worthwhile looking at a range of job posts for the type of role you want to aim for. This will give you a very good idea of the practical and academic qualification you’re likely to need.

You will also be required to carry the basic wind training as almost all the work in this sector is completed offshore. These certificates must be qualified by RenewableUK (RUK) and / or the Global Wind Organisation (GWO). The basic training is made up of:

• Sea Survival
• Fire Awareness
• First Aid
• Working at Height
• Manual Handling

Plus of course there is the specific training in the trade you are doing which we discussed earlier. It would be advisable to reach out to some companies and specific job roles to work out what training and qualifications you might need.