Clean energy is booming in Colorado, creating demand for rural labor

On a brisk April morning, a strong wind blew across the eastern plains, slamming doors, blowing off hats and, of course, keeping many of the local wind turbines in operation.

In other words, it was a beautiful morning to be a student in the Wind Energy Technology program at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, one of the few degree programs in the country for aspiring wind turbine technicians.

The Wind Tech Laboratory is located in an inconspicuous building with a metal facade in the northern part of the city. Inside, protected from the constant gusts of wind, nineteen-year-old Trent Shaver was taking a wiring class and building a simple practice circuit to control some lights and buzzers in a metal cabinet.

“We’re just trying to understand how it works before we start building more complicated circuits,” he said, preparing a piece of copper wire to complete the circuit. Cabling and electrical work is an important part of wind energy technician training.

Meanwhile, his classmate Benjamin Sussman was focusing on another important part of the curriculum: safety protocols. Preparing for his ladder climbing practice, he took his helmet out of his locker and put on his harness.

“You want it to be tight enough that you don’t slip around in it,” Sussman said, demonstrating his safety training. “But you don’t want it to be too tight.”

As Sussman approached his target, all the protective equipment suddenly seemed excessive: a bright yellow ladder of a particularly modest height – perhaps 20 feet – attached to the outside wall.

Of course, the yellow ladder was just a simulation designed to give students a chance to practice the more physical demands of being a wind technician. When starting out in the field, Sussman must be prepared to climb much higher: turbines are typically mounted 300 feet above the ground. At such heights, the harness literally becomes a lifeline, and the ability to use it correctly can mean the difference between life and death.

Apparently this job cannot be reconciled with a fear of heights – for Sussman this is not a problem.

“I’ve always been interested in climbing something very tall,” he said. “I climbed a lot of trees as a child.”

But Sussman doesn’t just indulge his love of heights here. He’s making a smart career move. The demand for wind technicians is growing rapidly. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, wind turbine technicians are now the fastest-growing profession in the country.

A recent report by E2, a national nonpartisan advocacy group focused on the environment and the economy, found that clean energy jobs are exploding in Colorado, and nowhere faster than in the Eastern Plains, where almost all of Colorado’s wind energy is developed. In this context, the NJC Wind Tech program plays a key role in building a local, in-demand clean energy workforce.

Keeping up with the demand for wind technologies

Kevin Schroeder tries to meet the industry’s labor needs as senior vice president of renewable energy at Invenergy, a global clean energy producer with wind farms in eastern Colorado and across the country.

“As the industry has evolved, the need for skilled workers to perform maintenance and repair work at these facilities has certainly increased,” Schroeder said.

Last year, his company installed more than 550 megawatts (MW) of wind energy across the country and doubled the country’s workforce of wind energy technicians to 400. In 2024, they expect to increase the number of wind installations by about 50% and hire another 250 wind energy technicians.

“We have more projects coming in every quarter,” Schroeder said. “We constantly post job advertisements looking for qualified employees. So it was hard to keep up.”

Not only are there plenty of jobs; they pay well too. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average salary for wind turbine technicians is just under $62,000 per year.

Amy Caillouette graduated from New Jersey’s wind technology program last year and just landed one of those high-paying jobs with an offshore wind developer operating off the coast of Rhode Island and New York.

“I couldn’t be happier with the offer I currently have,” said Caillouette, who recently left a career in nonprofits to pursue her lifelong dream of working on windmills.

She reported that the new job would be approximately double her previous salary and she was excited about her future prospects in the job.

“Now, every day I do something outdoors with my hands that I really love, that changes the world, and I get significantly compensated for it,” she said.

Moreover, the constant demand for competent wind energy technicians means job security.

“I have seen and experienced that once you are in the wind, you can stay in it as long as you want,” Caillouette said. “There are many opportunities for development.”

Labor markets respond to the clean energy transition

The wind turbine technician hiring frenzy in Colorado and beyond is a direct result of the clean energy transition, the process of phasing out coal and other fossil fuel energy sources in favor of renewable energy alternatives like wind and solar.

In Colorado, this transition is being accelerated.

“Historically, Colorado has relied on coal generation as its largest source of electricity,” said Dominique Gomez, deputy director of the Colorado Office of Energy. “We will now close all remaining coal-fired power plants in the state by the end of this decade.”

In addition to phasing out coal-fired power plants, the state’s goal is to create a 100% renewable energy grid by 2040.

“It’s just an amazing, huge change in such a short period of time,” Gomez said.

As renewable energy begins to replace all coal-fired energy, Colorado’s capacity to produce it will more than double by the end of the decade.

Wind energy is leading the way. Currently, about 75% of Colorado’s nearly 7,000 MW of renewable power comes from wind produced in the Eastern Plains, and by 2030, the state will add an additional 4,250 MW of wind energy capacity.

Naturally, all of these new turbines will require technicians with special knowledge to keep the blades spinning.

Wind Technology Work in the Eastern Plains

In Colorado, these spinning blades are almost entirely located in the Eastern Plains – a trend likely to continue as wind energy expands in the state.

“Basically 100% of wind energy is in rural areas,” said Jason Winter, an instructor with the New Jersey Department of Renewable Energy. “That’s what it has to be geographically.”

This means that all wind turbine technician positions will be Eastern Plains jobs. This is certainly the case at Invenergy, where 9 out of 10 full-time wind energy technician positions in Colorado are in the Eastern Plains region.

Winter, who grew up in the Eastern Plains himself, sees great potential in the wind industry for local communities and the regional economy.

“If (local children) don’t have a family farm to work on, they really don’t have a lot of options,” Winter said, adding that many young people have no choice but to leave eastern Colorado after high school. “Now that we suddenly have a really well-paid job, it’s worth staying here. I think it makes a huge difference to the community.”

As local renewable energy job opportunities grow, so does NJC’s renewable energy program. Next year, the laboratory area will more than double thanks to the expansion of the building. The program just received a $350,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a new certificate program for solar technicians that will launch next fall.

Meanwhile, employment prospects for current Winter students are good even before graduation. Benjamin Sussman secured an internship at Invenergy. He will spend his summer break working on turbines north of Sterling.

“I think it’s really one of the greatest combinations of things I could have done,” Sussman said. “It involves climbing things and working with your hands. There is an electrical component, a mechanical component and it is mostly environmentally friendly.