Siemens is making plans to build a new wind energy service training facility in Orlando, Florida.
The demand for skilled wind service technicians is increasing as more wind power projects come online in the Americas, thereby requiring long-term service and maintenance. Siemens is designing this new 40,000-square-foot center, which will be located close to the global headquarters of Siemens’ Energy Service division in Orlando.
Siemens’ initial investment will be about $7 million and the company plans to create 50 new full-time jobs and host about 2,400 trainees annually from the U.S. and the Americas. The training center, which is being built based on LEED Gold green-building standards, is scheduled to begin operations by this summer.
The Orlando wind training center will be one of four Siemens wind service training facilities globally, joining Brande, Denmark; Bremen, Germany; and Newcastle in the United Kingdom.
The training center will provide technical and health and safety training for Siemens’ wind power service technicians, equipping them with the skills required to safely and expertly meet the service needs of the industry. It will offer a wide variety of qualification and training options covering all aspects relating to the technology and operational reliability — an important contribution toward the efficient, reliable operation of wind turbines over the long-term.
The central feature of the new training center will be two full-size Siemens nacelles upon which wind service technicians will be trained to perform maintenance based on Siemens specifications. In addition, two 32-foot high climbing towers, ladder structures, electrical and hydraulic modules, and a maintenance crane will make training, safety and rescue simulations possible under realistic conditions. The Orlando location will also be designed to accommodate large classroom sizes.
In the past two years, Siemens global wind service business has grown from about 1,600 employees to well over 2,400 today and those numbers are expected to grow as more and more regions increase their commitment to building renewable energy resources to support the growing demand for renewable energy around the globe.
