A fair wind p1 - Military Transition - Military Times EDGE

When Matt Wheeler returned from an Illinois Army National Guard deployment to Iraq in the summer of 2008, the former bank manager wanted to get out of finance and move his family closer to his native Kansas.

Looking for a new start, he signed up with a civilian hiring firm to help him find a job.

Thanks to that decision, Wheeler is now happily working as a site manager for Suzlon Wind Energy Corp., tending a wind farm of 78 turbines in Oklahoma.

Wind energy has grown at a swift pace the last five years and is projected to continue growing as a cost-effective — and environmentally friendly — alternative to power plants that burn fossil fuels.

“It just really appealed to me,” Wheeler said.

The business

The Environmental Protection Agency defines green power as “renewable energy resources and technologies that provide the highest environmental benefit … [including] solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass and low-impact small hydroelectric sources.”

About 30,000 wind turbines were up and running in 35 states at the end of 2008, with capacity to produce more than 25,000 megawatts of energy, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Global capacity exceeded 120,800 megawatts. New wind power installations grew an average of 32 percent a year for the five years leading up to 2009. The record year was 2008, when the nation’s capacity rose 50 percent and the industry ultimately employed about 85,000 people.

Because of a slower economy, only about 5,000 new megawatts of wind power were planned in 2009. The association said growth is expected to stay strong, however, thanks to federal stimulus provisions.

A 2008 report from the Energy Department estimated that wind power could generate 20 percent of U.S. electricity by 2030 — and employ 500,000 people — if policies to support renewable energy were put in place.

Growing communities are drawn to wind power because the facilities cost less and take less time to build than traditional power plants and they’re immune to risks such as fluctuations in the price of fuel, according to a report by the industry association. Wind turbines “produce no carbon dioxide or air pollutant emissions, do not require water, mining, drilling or transportation of fuel, and do not generate radioactive or other hazardous or polluting waste.”

Wheeler’s employer, Suzlon Wind Energy Corp., is based in India, but it builds, runs and maintains turbines for clients around the world. Wheeler manages his site from Suzlon’s office in Guymon, Okla., taking care of the everyday planning and logistics to keep the site running and supervising its 23 other Suzlon employees.

Where the jobs are

The John Deere Wind Energy site Wheeler manages is made up of 78 wind turbines on 80-meter towers that, according to Suzlon, are built for a “medium wind regime.” The turbines have a nominal output of 129.8 megawatts of wind energy, which can generate roughly 312 million to 389 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually — enough to power 31,200 to 38,900 homes for a year. The average U.S. household consumes about 10,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually.

The job’s Midwestern location was a draw for Wheeler, who has family a few hours away in Kansas. He, his wife and their two kids now call the Oklahoma panhandle home.

Oklahoma ranks 11th in the country for wind power capacity, according to the industry association, behind Texas, Iowa, California, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, New York, Colorado, Kansas and Illinois.

Wind power capacity is generally growing fastest in the Great Plains and West Coast, and nowhere so fast as Texas. The Lone Star State added 2,671 megawatts in 2008 and 1,243 megawatts in the first two quarters of 2009, for a total of 8,361 megawatts. Iowa comes in second in both total capacity and new capacity added: It has added 1,851 megawatts in 2008 and the first half of 2009, for a total of 3,043 megawatts.

Missouri, Washington, Minnesota, Kansas and New York have also made significant additions to their capacity since 2007.

But not all the jobs created by the wind industry are located in breezy states.

“The great news about wind power development is that it created jobs across the country,” said AWEA spokeswoman Christine Real de Azua. “In Rust Belt states and high-tech corridors, in communities that may not be a windy area, manufacturing and computer design and financial service jobs will be created as part of the supply chain that makes wind turbines.”

Seven new manufacturing facilities for turbines, generators and components have been announced, opened or expanded in Michigan so far this year, and three in Ohio, the AWEA reports. More have opened or plan to open in Texas, Idaho, Kansas, California and elsewhere.

Once the parts are made, people are needed to build, manage and maintain the sites: construction managers, turbine installers, electrical engineers, wind technicians and others.

Getting hired

Wheeler was a first lieutenant in an Illinois National Guard ordnance maintenance company and was in charge of a forward logistics element during his deployment to Iraq.

He started his job hunt when he returned from his deployment in the summer of 2008 and connected with Suzlon at a prearranged interview during a hiring conference put on by the recruiting firm Orion International, which specializes in placing military personnel.

Wheeler attended Orion conferences in Chicago and Dallas and met up with Suzlon hiring managers at the Dallas event.

He had no particular background in wind, but his education — he has an MBA — and job experience, including his logistics work in Iraq, helped prepare him for the job, he said.

Those “skill sets crossed over to my duties and responsibilities as a site manager,” he said.

Suzlon had no formal training programs for its site managers when Wheeler started in October 2008, and he was brought up to speed by the staff at his site. The company said it is now developing training programs for site managers.

Now is a good time for people with more interest than experience, like Wheeler, to enter the field, he said.

“It’s only in the last three to four years that we’ve seen the skyrocketing growth in the U.S. that has resulted in a spike in demand for qualified people,” Wheeler said. “There are not many people out there with direct wind education and/or experience.”

Because wind energy is still relatively new, it does pull in people from outside the industry, depending on the position, said Suzlon spokeswoman Michelle Montague.

“It’s always helpful if a person has some kind of energy-related experience, but it’s not necessary,” she added.

And in that flattened playing field, military veterans have some natural edges.

Suzlon searches out veterans for construction, technician, engineering and manager jobs because the electrical and mechanical skills many service members receive are directly applicable to the company’s work, Montague said. More than that, she said, they have the leadership, commitment and integrity necessary to work in remote locations in adverse conditions.

Job hunters who want to get into the industry should take a wide view, because wind energy jobs may not be publicized as such, Real de Azua said. Montague recommends getting up to speed on the industry, the policies that drive the market and the major companies involved at the association’s Web site, www.awea.org.

AWEA maintains a job board at www.careersinwind.com, as does Suzlon (http://tinyurl.com/suzlonjobs). Other Web sites advertising positions in clean energy include www.windjobs.org, www.greenjobs.com, www.greenjobs.net and www.sustainablebusiness.com/jobs.

Wheeler said he did not go looking for a job in wind energy, and the Suzlon position was the only green job he interviewed for. But he said he’s glad he was in the right place at the right time.

“The wind energy industry is so new, with many changes and challenges, as well as opportunities ahead,” he said. “Who wouldn’t want to be in the wind industry right now?”

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Leading the way

States with the most wind energy capacity, through the second quarter of 2009:

1. Texas: 8,361 megawatts

2. Iowa: 3,043 megawatts

3. California: 2,787 megawatts

4. Minnesota: 1,805 megawatts

5. Washington: 1,575 megawatts

6. Oregon: 1,408 megawatts

7. New York: 1,264 megawatts

8. Colorado: 1,068 megawatts

9. Kansas: 1,014 megawatts

10. Illinois: 915 megawatts

Source: American Wind Energy Association