Offshore Wind Turbine Technician Apprenticeship

Galloper Offshore Wind Farm is a 353MW site, located 30km off the coast of Suffolk, close to its sister project Greater Gabbard Wind Farm. Each year Galloper Offshore Wind Farm’s 56 turbines generate enough green electricity to power the equivalent of more than 380,000 British homes.

A 60-strong team operates and maintains the wind farm from a state-of-the-art, purpose-built Operations & Maintenance facility in Harwich International Port, with crew transfer vessels travelling to the wind farm site daily (weather permitting). The operations & maintenance (O&M) facility houses a control room for managing the wind farm 24/7, a purpose-built pontoon for the crew transfer vessels, warehousing and office facilities, and a gym. The O&M team includes wind turbine technicians, engineers, marine coordinators as well as management and administrative staff.

The 504MW offshore wind farm has been in operation since 2012, generating enough low-carbon renewable energy each year to power the equivalent of over 400,000 UK homes. Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm is a joint venture between SSE Renewables (50%) and RWE Renewables (50%). SSE Renewables operates the offshore wind farm.

Lowestoft was selected as the Operations and Maintenance base in 2009, bringing 100 jobs to the area. All 140 turbines were commissioned and have been producing power since 2012.

Operational since 2015, the Humber Gateway Wind Farm consists of 73 wind turbines, producing 219MW of energy. This is enough to supply 170,000 homes, equivalent to around one and a half times the size of nearby Hull. The operations & maintenance facility is located on the north quay of Grimsby Fish Dock, providing a home to the 30-strong operations team, as well as  the office space, equipment storage and vessel mooring required to manage the site.

Operational since 2018, Rampion Offshore Wind Farm comprises 116 turbines on a 70 square kilometre site located between 13 and 20 kilometres off the Sussex coast in the English Channel. The 400MW site generates enough green electricity to power the equivalent of around 350,000 UK homes. This is equal to almost half of the homes in Sussex.

The operation and maintenance of the wind farm are carried out from a purpose-built facility located on the East Quay at Newhaven Port. This is home to a team of 65, including apprentices, wind turbine technicians, engineers, marine workers and administrative staff, who manage the day-to-day running of the wind farm. To date, Rampion has taken on 10 apprentices, 4 of them already fully trained technicians. Eventually, around 25 per cent of Rampion’s technicians will have been trained as apprentices.

Since entering operation in 2009, the 90MW Rhyl Flats Wind Farm has been providing enough green energy to power over 50,000 homes. The site is located 8km off the North Wales coast, towards the east end of the Constable Bank. A team fo 25, including apprentices, technicians, engineers, managers and other support staff run the site from an operations & maintenance facility located in the Port Of Mostyn. The site consistes of 25 wind turbines, each generating 3.6MW. 

Located in the Solway Firth, Robin Rigg East and Robin Rigg West were the first commercial offshore wind farms in Scottish waters (together known as Robin Rigg). These wind farms began full generation in April 2010 and combined provide 174MW, enough electricity to power approximately 117,000 homes and offset around 230,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions each year. A 30+strong team operate & maintain the site from its base at the Port of Workington.

Located 2.5 km offshore Great Yarmouth on the coast of East Anglia, Scroby Sands was one of the first offshore wind farms to be developed in the UK. With 30 2MW wind turbines producing a total of 60MW, Scrobdy Sands produces enough to power 41,000 homes in the area. The operations & maintenance team is made up of approximately 20 staff, working from a facility located in Great Yarmouth.

Triton Knoll is an 857MW offshore wind farm, located off the east coast of England. It lies approximately 20 miles east off the coast of Lincolnshire, and 28 miles north off the coast of north Norfolk. It's a nationally significant UK infrastructure project which will be operated and maintained from a purpose built facility located on Grimsby's Royal Dock.

The 9.5MW turbines are amongst the most powerful operating anywhere in the world, and capable of energising a typical UK household for more than 29 hours with just a single turn of the blades. Each turbine has a greater swept area than the London Eye (turbine 187m, London Eye 120m), and measures 187 metres from the base of the tower to the tip of the blades.

Triton Knoll already employes 3 former apprentices  as full-time technicians, and has 6 apprentices currently progressing through their training at the site. During their first year of training, a recent group of TK apprentices kept an 'Apprenticeship Blog' which can be found here.