Example Career: Wind Energy Engineers

Career Description

Design underground or overhead wind farm collector systems and prepare and develop site specifications.

What Job Titles Wind Energy Engineers Might Have

• Project Designer
• Transmission and Distribution Engineering
• Project Engineer
• Senior Engineer/Practice Leader-Land Development and Engineering
• Senior Wind Energy Consultant

What Wind Energy Engineers Do

• Create or maintain wind farm layouts, schematics, or other visual documentation for wind farms.
• Recommend process or infrastructure changes to improve wind turbine performance, reduce operational costs, or comply with regulations.
• Create models to optimize the layout of wind farm access roads, crane pads, crane paths, collection systems, substations, switchyards, or transmission lines.
• Provide engineering technical support to designers of prototype wind turbines.
• Investigate experimental wind turbines or wind turbine technologies for properties such as aerodynamics, production, noise, and load.
• Develop active control algorithms, electronics, software, electromechanical, or electrohydraulic systems for wind turbines.
• Develop specifications for wind technology components, such as gearboxes, blades, generators, frequency converters, and pad transformers.
• Test wind turbine components, using mechanical or electronic testing equipment.
• Oversee the work activities of wind farm consultants or subcontractors.
• Test wind turbine equipment to determine effects of stress or fatigue.
• Monitor wind farm construction to ensure compliance with regulatory standards or environmental requirements.

What Wind Energy Engineers Should Be Good At

• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Mathematical Reasoning - The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.

What Wind Energy Engineers Should Be Interested In

• Realistic - Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.
• Investigative - Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.

What Wind Energy Engineers Need to Learn

• Engineering and Technology - Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
• Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
• Design - Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
• Physics - Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub- atomic structures and processes.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Building and Construction - Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
• Mechanical - Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
• Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
• Law and Government - Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.