What the work actually
looks like
A wind turbine technician climbs a hundred metres of steel, works inside a machine the size of a bus, and keeps it turning. Built for newcomers, students and technical schools — everything here is interactive, so tap anything to find out what it is.
Onshore — in the field
Rotor blades
Three blades, 60–90 m each on a modern onshore machine. They are not pushed by the wind — they generate lift, like a wing turned on its side.
What a technician does here
Leading-edge erosion, lightning receptor continuity, bond-line inspection. Blade work is rope access or a suspended platform.
Hub and pitch system
Carries the blades and rotates each one about its own axis. Pitching controls power and is also how the machine stops — feather the blades and the rotor slows.
What a technician does here
Pitch bearings, hydraulic or electric pitch drives, slip rings, accumulator pressure checks.
Nacelle
The machine house: drivetrain, generator, converter cabinets, cooling, yaw drives and a service crane. Most of a technician's day is spent inside it.
What a technician does here
Scheduled service — oil and filters, bolt torque, sensor checks, fault finding, component exchange.
Gearbox and generator
The gearbox steps roughly 12 rpm up to about 1,200 rpm; the generator turns that rotation into electricity. Direct-drive machines omit the gearbox entirely and use a much larger generator.
What a technician does here
Oil sampling and changes, borescope inspection, vibration analysis, slip-ring and brush service.
Yaw system
Motors on a large ring gear rotate the whole nacelle to face the wind, guided by the vane and anemometer on the roof.
What a technician does here
Yaw gear grease, brake pad wear, and the cable twist count — the loop below must be untwisted.
Service lift and ladder
Inside the tower: a ladder with a fall-arrest rail the whole way up, and on most modern machines a small service lift. The lift carries tools and parts; the ladder is the escape route and is climbed when the lift is out of service.
What a technician does here
Lift inspection and load test, ladder and rail condition, rescue plan and descender check before every climb.
Tower
A tubular steel column in bolted sections, roughly 80–120 m to the hub. It carries the power cables, the twist loop and the internal platforms.
What a technician does here
Bolt torque and tension at every flange, coating condition, platform and hatch inspection.
Transformer and switchgear
Raises the generator output to the farm's collection voltage — 33–35 kV onshore, written as 30, 33 or 36 kV depending on the country. This is the high-voltage boundary, and where your authorisation stops unless you hold an HV ticket.
What a technician does here
Restricted work: HV authorisation, lock-off, proving dead and earthing before anything else happens.
Foundation
A reinforced concrete gravity base, often several hundred cubic metres, holding the tower against overturning.
What a technician does here
Anchor bolt tension checks, grout condition, settlement and crack monitoring.