Category: Renewable energy

In the rapidly evolving wind energy sector, Global Wind Organisation (GWO) certifications set the baseline for safety and operational standards. However, for wind technicians looking to excel, it is crucial to look beyond these basic requirements. STL USA offers a range of non-GWO courses that provide specialized skills and in-depth knowledge, from technical maintenance to advanced safety protocols. Courses like Gearbox & Borescope Inspection, Control of Hazardous Energies (CoHE), and Qualified Electrical Worker (QEW) with NFPA 70E are valuable tools for wind technicians aiming to build on foundational GWO certifications. Here’s a breakdown of these courses and why they are indispensable for developing a well-rounded skill set.

1. Gearbox & Borescope Course

The Gearbox & Borescope course trains technicians to conduct detailed inspections of turbine gearboxes, an essential component in wind turbines. The gearbox is one of the most critical parts of a turbine, transforming mechanical energy from the rotor into electrical energy. Ensuring it functions correctly is crucial for efficient and safe turbine operation.

• Course Content:

  • Gearbox Mechanics: Technicians learn the structure, function, and operation of gearbox systems, enabling them to identify normal versus abnormal conditions.
  • Borescope Operation: Borescope technology allows for non-invasive inspection of internal components. Technicians are trained in borescope use, focusing on effective image capturing and interpreting findings to spot issues like wear, cracks, and misalignments.
  • Troubleshooting & Reporting: Technicians learn to recognize early signs of failure and generate accurate reports, enabling maintenance teams to make proactive decisions.

• Why It’s Important: This course goes beyond basic GWO technical skills, providing a deep understanding of how to maintain a turbine’s longevity and prevent costly repairs. By developing these diagnostic skills, technicians can save companies from extensive downtime and ensure the turbines are generating power consistently. For technicians, this course is a stepping stone to specialized roles and career advancement.

2. Control of Hazardous Energies (CoHE) Course

Control of Hazardous Energies (CoHE) is critical for technicians working with machinery that has high potential for energy release. We know it is a GWO course, but it isn’t one of the required minimal standard certs for wind technicians. STL USA believes that CoHE is absolutely essential training for anyone working in wind energy, particularly up tower, and we know many OEM businesses will be adding it to the required qualifications for techs from next year. In wind turbines, technicians often work with systems where energy from electricity, hydraulic systems, or stored mechanical energy poses a risk. CoHE training emphasizes managing these risks, reducing the potential for serious accidents.

• Course Content:

  • Understanding Hazardous Energy: This component covers various forms of energy technicians encounter, such as electrical, hydraulic, and mechanical energy, and their associated risks.
  • Lockout/Tagout Procedures (LOTO): CoHE training centers on LOTO, which ensures machinery is de-energized and locked down before technicians perform maintenance, repair, or inspection.
  • Risk Assessment and Safe Work Practices: Technicians learn to perform risk assessments, use proper personal protective equipment (PPE), and follow strict protocols to maintain a safe work environment.

• Why It’s Important: The CoHE course builds competencies that go beyond routine safety practices and empowers technicians to handle high-risk environments with confidence. Understanding and managing hazardous energies is crucial to avoid accidents and maintain safe operations, which can save lives and prevent costly incidents. For technicians, the skills gained from this course show a strong commitment to safety and make them more valuable on the job.

3. Qualified Electrical Worker (QEW) to standard NFPA 70E

Electricity is one of the most significant hazards in wind turbines, especially as turbines grow larger and more powerful. The Qualified Electrical Worker (QEW) course with NFPA 70E certification is designed to develop a high level of competency in electrical safety, preparing technicians to safely work with and around electrical components.

• Course Content:

  • NFPA 70E Standards: This standard, developed by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), covers best practices for electrical safety in workplaces. The course explains guidelines for arc flash protection, shock hazard analysis, and PPE selection.
  • Electrical Hazard Identification: Technicians are trained to identify various electrical hazards, assess risk, and implement preventive measures.
  • Safe Electrical Work Practices: Technicians learn safe practices when working with energized and de-energized systems, including correct procedures for lockout/tagout and safe approach distances.

• Why It’s Important: The QEW with NFPA 70E course offers specialized training that complements a wind technician’s existing technical and safety knowledge. Electricity-related incidents are one of the most common causes of injuries on wind farms, making this training indispensable for reducing risks. Additionally, certification as a Qualified Electrical Worker opens doors to more advanced roles and increases a technician’s employability within the sector.

4. BOP Substation/PMT Switching *NEW FOR 2024

5. Confined Space Awareness

Moving Beyond Basic Certifications: Why It Matters

While GWO courses provide an essential foundation in safety and technical skills, the specialized training offered by courses like Gearbox & Borescope Inspection, CoHE, and QEW with NFPA 70E are invaluable for several reasons:

1. Enhanced Job Performance: Advanced skills in inspecting, troubleshooting, and managing electrical hazards mean technicians are better equipped to perform their jobs effectively, reducing turbine downtime and boosting operational efficiency. Specialized training enables technicians to proactively address issues, which is crucial for maintaining consistent power output.

2. Increased Safety and Reduced Risk: Wind farms can be dangerous work environments, with risks like high-voltage systems, extreme heights, and powerful mechanical forces. By gaining advanced knowledge through CoHE and NFPA 70E, technicians are not only safer but also better positioned to keep their colleagues safe, reinforcing a culture of safety across the site.

3. Career Advancement and Specialization: Completing non-GWO courses signals a commitment to professional development, which is attractive to employers. These certifications demonstrate that a technician has skills above and beyond basic requirements, making them eligible for specialized roles in gearbox maintenance, electrical safety, and energy management.

4. Long-Term Career Resilience: As the wind industry continues to grow and new technologies emerge, technicians who invest in advanced training are better prepared for the evolving demands of the field. Possessing a well-rounded skill set allows technicians to adapt to changes, secure advanced positions, and build a long-lasting career in wind energy.

Conclusion

While GWO certifications establish a strong foundation, non-GWO courses like Gearbox & Borescope Inspection, CoHE, and QEW with NFPA 70E add a crucial layer of skill and expertise that prepares technicians for the real demands of the job. These courses enable technicians to excel by increasing their job performance, enhancing safety, and positioning them for growth in an expanding industry. As the wind energy sector advances, technicians who pursue specialized training will find themselves better equipped, more versatile, and ready to meet the challenges of a dynamic field.

The Global Wind Organisation (GWO) sets essential standards for training in the wind energy industry, ensuring that technicians are competent and compliant with critical safety and operational skills. These courses, however, require periodic refreshers, meaning wind technicians frequently attend training sessions throughout their careers. For businesses, this can quickly add up in both costs and time, especially when training involves travel across the country and accommodation fees. Combining specific GWO courses has become a popular solution, not only for its convenience but also for the substantial savings in time and money it provides. Here, we’ll look at the advantages of bundling GWO courses and the added benefits of onsite training, which can further amplify the savings for wind energy companies.

STL USA is always looking to improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness for our clients, demonstrated by the variability and flexibility of the courses, the bespoke training programs and the many ways customers are able to access our services, be that at our world-class facilities or onsite at their premises.

By combining popular courses and the required GWO certified standards, we are able to condense the length of courses by maximising the content between the different skills and standards needed.

Because we also take the time to really get to know our clients, how they operate and wants makes them unique, it means we are able to really understand what will work best for them, their workforce and the requirements of their business.

We are delighted to be able to announce the following integrations from immediate effect:

1. CoHE and QEW to NFPA 70E – Taken separately, these highly valuable skill-building courses total over 5 days of training. Now, because we have been able to integrate the material into one package, wind technicians are able to do the GWO CoHE and combine with QEW to NFPA 70E cert in just 3.5 days.
2. We now also offer a combined ART and BST Refreshers course, which runs over 4 days, whereas previously, taking these separately would total 5 days of training.
3. Not only that but for clients wishing to run the BST Refresher course onsite at their own facilities, we are now able to run this over 2 days instead of the usual 3.

The Cost of Fragmented Training: Why Combining GWO Courses Makes Sense

Sending wind technicians to multiple training sessions throughout the year is costly, particularly when refresher courses are needed for certifications in safety training, manual handling, first aid, and more. Each course that requires separate travel, lodging, and downtime not only impacts the budget but also reduces technicians’ availability for active projects. Combining certain GWO courses is a practical strategy that allows businesses to train their employees more efficiently.

By bundling training courses together, businesses reduce the frequency of travel needed and minimize the number of days technicians spend away from work, resulting in less disruption to project schedules. For instance, the GWO Basic Safety Training (BST) module alone has several components, including Working at Heights, Manual Handling, Fire Awareness, and First Aid. These components are often taught separately if they aren’t combined, requiring technicians to travel repeatedly. By consolidating these into one extended session, companies eliminate the need for multiple trips and significantly reduce associated travel and accommodation costs.

Time and Financial Savings from Course Bundling

Let’s break down the specific areas of time and financial savings for businesses that combine GWO courses:

Reduced Travel Costs: Every separate training session typically involves round-trip travel costs, whether by car, train, or air. Consolidating multiple courses into one session reduces the frequency of travel, saving companies potentially thousands of dollars each year in transportation expenses.

Lower Accommodation and Meal Expenses: For companies sending technicians for training in distant locations, accommodation and meal allowances become a considerable part of the cost. A training session spread over two days rather than spread across two sessions over two separate months could cut these expenses by 50% or more.

Minimized Downtime: When technicians attend multiple training sessions, it leads to greater periods of downtime when they are unavailable for work. By combining courses, companies benefit from minimizing this downtime, allowing their team to return to projects faster. This increased availability improves operational efficiency and minimizes the cost impact of having fewer technicians on the job.

Streamlined Administration: Every separate training session requires its own set of administrative tasks—organizing travel, booking accommodations, and coordinating schedules. By combining courses, administrative overhead is significantly reduced, freeing up staff to focus on other areas of business management.

In total, companies can save up to 30% or more by combining GWO courses, depending on the frequency of refreshers and the distance required for travel. For companies operating in remote or international locations, the savings may be even more substantial.

Enhancing Training Flexibility with Onsite Courses

Another highly effective way to cut down costs while increasing training efficiency is by bringing GWO training onsite rather than sending technicians to an external training center. This option is especially advantageous for companies with a large team of technicians, allowing for personalized, focused training sessions that address the specific needs of the business and site.

Key Benefits of Onsite Training

Elimination of Travel and Accommodation Costs: Onsite training entirely removes the need for travel, which is a significant cost saver. Accommodation and meal allowances are no longer required, and technicians don’t need to take as much time away from their families.

Reduced Training Downtime: When training is conducted onsite, technicians can go through the sessions without significant downtime, as they don’t have to commute to and from an external facility. This allows technicians to resume work more quickly after training sessions, minimizing any disruption to business operations.

Tailored Learning Environment: Onsite training enables instructors to customize the learning environment to suit the specific conditions and risks faced by technicians in their actual workplace. This tailored approach enhances the relevance of the training, as technicians practice skills in a familiar setting, increasing the practical application of what they learn.

Increased Flexibility for Scheduling: Onsite training allows for much greater flexibility, as sessions can be scheduled around active projects and peak work periods. This avoids the need for technicians to leave projects incomplete or put them on hold, ensuring that training does not interfere with the company’s productivity and deadlines.

Improved Team Cohesion: Conducting training onsite provides an opportunity for teams to train together in a comfortable, familiar environment, which can foster better communication, teamwork, and camaraderie. This aspect of training is especially valuable for safety and rescue operations, where team coordination is crucial.

Maximizing Long-Term Value with Combined Onsite Training

For companies dedicated to both efficiency and maintaining high safety standards, combining GWO courses and conducting them onsite offers significant benefits. Beyond the immediate cost savings, these strategies reinforce a company’s commitment to its employees by reducing the time they spend away from home and giving them training that is highly relevant to their work environment. Moreover, by reducing the frequency of training sessions and travel requirements, businesses can allocate their budget toward other investments, such as equipment, tools, or additional advanced training modules.

When a company bundles training courses, it optimizes the learning process, consolidates costs, and minimizes disruption. Adding onsite training into the mix further enhances these benefits, positioning the company to handle its workforce development needs more efficiently and cost-effectively. Both options, whether applied together or separately, reflect a proactive approach that balances operational needs, financial responsibility, and employee satisfaction, ultimately strengthening the company’s overall productivity and safety culture.

In the long run, businesses that combine and conduct onsite training set themselves up for sustained success. They benefit not only from streamlined operations but also from a team of well-trained, dedicated technicians who are prepared to meet the challenges of the wind energy sector with confidence and skill.

The industry is heavily focused on technician certification right now as standards such as GWO are adopted across the sector. However certification is simply a pass to get through the door, what comes next is what defines the success of a technician in the role.

STL USA has created full-service training for wind technicians, a training framework that outlines a clear pathway of progression from beginner through to advanced skills and competencies. These programs are highly adaptive to an individual company’s requirements, containing a complete range of wind technician training courses and work as a blueprint for how they see their workforce developing over time as we all drive towards better quality and the rewards that this brings.

As the industry matures ongoing training and development will only increase in importance as it becomes a clear route for companies to retain and win new projects through their ability to perform and exceed objectives. STL USA is already working with a raft of leaders in the wind sector, leaders who understand the role this plays in cementing their place in the industry to take advantage of the opportunities fully that major growth brings.

What do we mean by full-service wind technician training

At STL USA we are dedicated to training the technician to do the very best job, in the safest way possible. Respecting the fact that people are at the very core of this industry, real people with friends, families and responsibilities, keeps us focused on the task at hand – equipping technicians with the skills and training to enable them to fulfil those responsibilities and go home to their families every day. That isn’t done by ticking boxes, and it is never about meeting the minimum.

We are lucky that our industry has a unified safety standardization, but at STL USA we don’t see that as a goal, we see certification as the baseline. A person can attain their required GWO certifications without ever having set foot in a wind turbine. So, we need to think about the wider job we are actually asking them to do and providing them with the skills and competencies to do it well. That’s where full-service training comes into play.

We work directly with companies to ensure we fully understand their unique requirements from the people they employ, spending time and energy to get beneath the surface and build training programs that are tailored to support wind technicians throughout the entire lifetime of their careers. The results are motivated technicians who perform above expectations for their employers, a win win.

Pathways for technician skills and competency

Establishing clear outcomes from training. This sounds simple enough, but in our experience, it’s so often overlooked. We start with a concise audit of our customer’s workforce, measuring against the expected skills a technician should have based on role and experience. Understanding exactly what technicians can and can’t do is vital, not just for developing training programs, but also for their companies so they can accurately manage the work they do. Once we understand where we are from a skills and competence perspective we then work with each company to map out where we want to be and the training pathway we need to follow to get there.  Integrated training programs are then developed incorporating a range of modules that STL USA deliver, internal training and third-party training designed for each wind tech throughout their lifecycle, from beginner to intermediate, all the way through to advanced. As mentioned previously, we see certification as a necessary starting point. Achieving the required standardized certificates gets a person through the door, but in the same way, you wouldn’t expect a surgeon to operate just from reading the theory and procedures in a textbook, technicians need tailor-made, ongoing skills and competency training to do their job well.

Adaptive programs based on employers needs

We treat every single client differently, as we know they all have varying needs and objectives. One shoe fits all just isn’t going to help anyone smash their objectives. We work alongside employers to establish exactly what they want and then build out bespoke training programs to meet those needs. This starts with an assessment phase, which we believe is vital to establishing the real-life competency of the workforce. We can then create a flexible, unified program that incorporates a multitude of disciplines and deliver that in partnership with our client on an ongoing basis.

We are all aware of the rapid growth the wind industry is currently experiencing and with that comes fast-paced changes, particularly in terms of the technology being rolled out regularly. Keeping up with these changes is hard enough for clients, let alone having the time and experience to consider how those changes affect the training requirements and skills development of their wind technicians. Working with a leading training provider like STL USA means that you can tap into decades of expertise with access to a training team at the forefront of the industry, whose job is to ensure your workforce can confidently embrace these changes and incorporate advanced learnings and skills into their daily working life.