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Wind Energy Engineers

In the Wind Energy Engineers occupation, workers design underground or overhead wind farm collector systems and prepare and develop site specifications. A regular part of the work is to create or maintain wind farm layouts, schematics, or other visual documentation for wind farms. On the six-type interest model it reads RIC, meaning hands-on work with tools, machines or the physical world comes first, followed by research, analysis and working through hard problems. Plan on a bachelor’s degree plus a period of work experience; O*NET labels this considerable preparation. Strength in critical thinking, reading comprehension, and mathematics helps most here. If you want hands-on work with tools, machines or the physical world, keep it on your list. If you need helping, teaching or caring for people, it may feel thin.

What they do

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

Main tasks

  • 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.

Skills

  • Critical Thinking
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Mathematics
  • Judgment and Decision Making
  • Writing
  • Systems Analysis

Who this career fits

May suit you if

  • You like ending the day with a physical result you can point to.
  • You enjoy working out why something happens, not just what happened.
  • You are ready to spend around four years on a degree, then build experience.
  • You are comfortable relying on critical thinking and reading comprehension.

May not suit you if

  • You would rather stay away from physical, hands-on tasks.
  • You want helping people to be at the center of your work. Social rates 1.4 out of 7 here.
  • You want to avoid a four-year degree or its equivalent.

Interest profile

O*NET rates each occupation from 1 to 7 on six interest types. The code RIC takes the three highest, and Realistic comes first here.

Preparation

Considerable preparation. Most jobs here ask for a bachelor’s degree, and employers usually expect a few years of related experience as well.

Most-reported requirement in the O*NET survey: Bachelor's Degree. This reflects what workers reported most often and is not a legal minimum. Licensing rules can differ by state or industry, so confirm what applies where you plan to work.

Also called

  • Engineer
  • Project Engineer
  • Turbine Measurements Engineer
  • Utility Engineer
  • Wind Energy Consultant

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This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.