Training wind turbine repairers, a dizzying challenge in the United States

“In 14 years, I have never seen anyone fall. I hope it’s not the first today,” jokes the technician instructor, addressing AFP journalists who have just climbed the 260 rungs of the ladder leading to the roof.

This wind turbine overlooks the small town of Tucumcari, in the southwest of the United States. Like a solitary giant, lost in the immensity along the famous Route 66.

Built in 2008, it is one of the few functional wind turbines where American apprentice technicians can train in the maintenance of these machines.

An essential tool used by a local higher education institution to support a growing industry in the United States.

The amount of electricity that wind power is capable of generating has more than doubled in ten years. The country has about 75.000 wind turbines, which produce enough electricity to power 40 million American homes.

Maintenance therefore becomes a crucial issue. But “there are not enough technicians compared to the number of wind turbine fields,” explains Mr. Stowe.

The teacher trains 10 to 20 students per semester. First in a hangar on the ground with a replica generator and gearbox, before climbing towards the engine room, housed in the heart of the three blades of the giant tower.

Sensitive souls, refrain

The job is not for the faint of heart, according to Mr. Stowe.

“I tell them that if they are terrified of heights, they shouldn’t try it,” he says. When there are gusts, moving atop a wind turbine is "like pitching on a boat, back and forth (...) 100 meters in the air."

Recent recruits include Nathaniel Alexander and Kevin Blea who have graduated and become instructors themselves.

“I’m for clean energy,” says Mr. Alexander, a Tucumcari local. But above all, the 28-year-old wanted to do "a man's job", with a good salary.

The training lasts two years and costs between $6.000 and $10.000. It leads to positions that allow you to earn $50.000 to $90.000, much more than the average salary in the region.

While falling costs and improving wind technology are propelling the sector's growth, the industry has also received a major boost from Joe Biden, who funded an ambitious green program.

However, few are grateful to him in Tucumcari, a conservative rural region, nestled on the borders of an otherwise largely Democratic New Mexico.

There has been "a bit of an upward trend" in recent years, Stowe acknowledges.

“But in fact, when Trump was there, the upward trend was more pronounced than under Biden,” he believes.

Mr. Alexander judges that the tax credits granted to wind power have "definitely helped" the industry, but admits to being "not very passionate" about the green reputation of the sector.

“Conspiracy theories”

What interests him more is reading “conspiracy theories about how much diesel is needed to run” a wind turbine.

“That’s not true at all, I just find it quite funny,” he smiles.

Wind turbines are frequently struck by lightning, requiring technicians to climb to repair them. But security has changed dramatically in recent years.

Before his career as an instructor, Mr. Stowe sometimes crawled on a "frozen layer of ice" atop wind turbines buffeted by 145 mph winds.

“At the time, the weather didn’t matter much,” he says wistfully. Today, “if there is the slightest uncertainty about the weather, they don’t climb.”

His other former student, Mr. Blea, however, remembers seeing one of his comrades "vomit in his helmet", because of the wind which tossed the training wind turbine.

“It was quite disgusting, honestly,” laughs the 27-year-old.

But the dangers are quickly forgotten, according to Mr. Alexander, thanks to a career punctuated by “impressive” panoramas in the morning light.

“It’s a good way to wake up,” he concludes.