Glossary
Wind Turbine Technician Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential wind turbine technician terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key wind turbine technician vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in wind turbine technician training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Anemometer
- A device that measures wind speed.
- Cut-in speed
- The wind speed at which a turbine starts generating power.
- Descent device
- Equipment used for self-rescue or rescue from height.
- Gearbox
- Increases rotor speed to drive the generator (not used in direct-drive turbines).
- Generator
- Converts mechanical energy into electricity.
- GWO
- Global Wind Organisation: sets international wind industry safety training standards.
- Hub
- The center of the rotor where blades attach.
- Lockout/tagout
- Procedures to isolate energy before maintenance.
- Nacelle
- The housing on top of the tower containing the gearbox, generator and controls.
- Pitch system
- Adjusts blade angle to control power and stop the turbine.
- Rotor
- The hub and blades that capture wind energy.
- SCADA
- Supervisory control and data acquisition: systems that monitor and control turbines remotely.
- Tensioning
- Stretching large bolts hydraulically to achieve precise clamping force.
- Torque
- Rotational force applied to fasteners, specified in foot-pounds or newton-meters.
- Yaw system
- Turns the nacelle to face the wind.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Wind Turbine Technician practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Wind Turbine Technician training.
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