The ACP Entry-Level Wind Technician Guidelines will aim to ensure a comprehensive understanding of entry-level requirements for operations and maintenance wind technicians for onshore and offshore wind facilities. The guidelines will help:

• Alleviate the continued pressure on costs and resources
• Reduce bottlenecks in training
• Provide a stable, competent entry level workforce
• Reduce recruitment constraints by knowledgeable entry-level technicians ready for company qualifications and experience
• Decrease training duplication
• Reduce the pressure on recruitment and training
• Prove useful for both construction and maintenance technicians

Comment Period

We are currently inviting industry professionals to provide comments on these draft guidelines, which are available for ACP members only.

Please fill out the form below for access to the draft guidelines, and find instructions on providing public comments here. Simply download the file, fill it out, and send it back.

Deadline for comments is Saturday July 22, 2023.

If you are a non-member who would like to review the draft guidelines, please email workforcedev@cleanpower.org.

Micro Credentials represent concise, logical skills that – when combined – form the larger skillsets necessary to successfully work in certain jobs on clean energy sites. An individual can be tested against these skills to demonstrate mastery of the skill and, in so doing, get on a path to a promotion. 

How can I use Micro Credentials? 

Employers can use the Micro Credentials to test and track training effectiveness, technician progression, and fit for various tasks and projects. This can help ensure work is performed safely and competently. The addition of more and targeted Micro Credentials can also be used to reward additional capabilities and skillsets.   

Technicians can use the Micro Credentials to demonstrate their competence in particular skills. Using these credentials as reference, the capabilities and the breadth of technician skills can be measured and quantified, which can support career progression. 

Explore ACP’s Micro Credentials:

• Cranes
  • Basic Crane Awareness
  • Crane Lift Plans
  • Crane Rigging Usage Inspection
  • Crane Signal Person
  • Taglines
• Electric Tools
  • Electric Torque Tool
• Electrical Diagnostics
  • Digital Multi-Meter Basics
  • Digital Multi-Meter
  • Electrical Schematic Reading
  • Megger Use
  • Micro-Ohmmeter Use
  • Oscilloscope Use
• Hydraulic Equipment 
  • Hydraulic Accumulator Charging
  • Hydraulic Schematic Reading
  • Hydraulic System Pressure
• Hydraulic Tools 
  • Hydraulic Tension Tool
  • Hydraulic Torque Tool
• Lockout Tagout (LOTO) 
  • Batteries
  • Electrical Cabinets
  • Electrical Pitch System
  • Gear Box
  • Generator
  • Hydraulic Pitch System
  • Rotor Lock
• Mechanical Diagnostics 
  • Borescope Inspection
  • Gear Box Oil Sample
• WTG Mechanics
  • Brake Pad Replacement
  • Laser Shaft
  • Manual Torque Tools
  • Removal of Nacelle Cover
  • Up Tower Rotor Rotation

The ACP Micro Credentials are designed to aid the employer to comply with 29 CFR 1910.269(a)(2)(viii) and 29 CFR 1910.9 (b). These two standards require both training and demonstrated proficiency in the work practices they are expected to perform.   

ACP’s Training and Education Working Group has prepared this series of micro credentials. If you have questions about this ACP program, or recommendations for additional micro credentials, please reach out via workforcedev@cleanpower.org. 

Created for job-seekers, hiring managers, the existing workforce, and the public, ACP’s Clean Energy Career Pathways Catalog presents over 300 job descriptions for technical and specialty jobs within the clean energy industry.

This catalog shows the upward mobility and opportunities that exist within the industry, alongside highlighting the skills and requirements necessary to work in these positions. The aim is to provide a better understanding of how existing transferrable skills could be applied to clean energy jobs or what a career progression within the workforce could look like.

This massive effort is meant to provide workers in other energy industries, veterans, and workers in underrepresented communities a better idea of the jobs available in clean energy, as well as support the industry with recruiting and retention.

This catalog is focused on technical and specialty job. It does not include the wide array of jobs like accounting, communications, office management, legal, government affairs, etc. that exist within these clean power sectors, but for which the function is similar no matter the industry. 

Browse the Catalog

Browse the full catalog in an interactive PDF. Or, browse by clean energy sector in the individual files below:

• Solar
• Land-based Wind
• Offshore Wind
• Storage
• Transmission

Browse the Digital Catalog

Mix-and-match filters to find the right fit for you in the digital version of this catalog.

Search for Clean Energy Jobs

After browsing the catalog for jobs that match your skills, search our Careers in Clean Energy database for open positions near you in the clean energy workforce.

If you have questions about the catalog, please email workforcedev@cleanpower.org.  

The wind industry partially repowered over 12 gigawatts of land-based wind energy facilities in the U.S. between 2015–2021. While the focus on repowering has traditionally been centered around market drivers and economics, this report highlights how to ensure the work is done safely. 

In this report, you’ll find lessons learned for development, construction, and operation of repowered facilities from the companies who have done the work. ACP hopes that by sharing these experiences more broadly, we can help with the industry’s continuous improvement on safety performance. 

Building, operating, and maintaining any power generation project requires a high level of electrical safety awareness, training, technical skills, knowledge, and the personal discipline to always act in a safe manner. To build such awareness, knowledge and skills requires training, including on specific tasks since each task presents different hazards and mitigation procedures.

The Guidelines for Wind Operations Qualified Electrical Workers represent a basic set of criteria for a Qualified Electrical Worker (QEW) program with suggestions for developing the training, managing the verification of skills and the implementation in the field including both the technical skills and the electrical safety elements to be considered. This is intended as a guideline to assist companies in preparing their own QEW program.

ACP’s Electrical Safety Working Group finalized these Guidelines for Wind Operations Qualified Electrical Workers. The Working Group is in the process of developing a similar document for solar.

These guidelines are a part of ACP’s workforce safety resources. If you have questions about the guidelines, please contact safety@cleanpower.org. 

Number of pages: 48

AWEA Standard 61400-23 Full Scale Structural Testing of Rotor Blades is an identical adoption of IEC 61400-23:2014. This standard defines the requirements for full-scale structural testing of wind turbine blades and for the interpretation and evaluation of achieved test results. The standard focuses on aspects of testing related to an evaluation of the integrity of the blade for use by manufacturers and third party investigators. The following tests are considered in this standard: static load tests fatigue tests static load tests after fatigue tests and tests determining other blade properties. The purpose of the tests is to confirm to an acceptable level of probability that the whole population of a blade type fulfils the design assumptions. Once you complete your purchase ACP will send you an individual watermarked digital copy for your use. Disclaimer: This document is proprietary and its use is subject to a legally binding license agreement and disclaimer (the “Agreement”) which can be found online here, as it may be updated from time to time.

Number of pages: 109

AWEA Standard 61400-13 Measurement of Mechanical Loads is an identical adoption of IEC 61400. This standard deals with mechanical load measurements on wind turbines and mainly focuses on large (40 m2) electricity generating horizontal axis wind turbines. However the methods described might be applicable to other wind turbines as well (for example mechanical water pumpers vertical axis turbines). The object of this specification is to describe the methodology and corresponding techniques for the experimental determination of the mechanical loading on wind turbines. This technical specification is intended to act as a guide for carrying out measurements used for verification of codes and/or for direct determination of the structural loading. This specification is not only intended as one coherent measurement specification but can also be used for more limited measurement campaigns. Once you complete your purchase ACP will send you an individual watermarked digital copy for your use. Disclaimer: This document is proprietary and its use is subject to a legally binding license agreement and disclaimer (the “Agreement”) which can be found online here, as it may be updated from time to time.