The fall-2013 edition of IRISH, Notre Dame's alumni magazine, was recently published and distributed to over 10,000 graduates. It included an article about a 2000 alumnus of Notre Dame High School who is doing some very interesting work.
Alum can’t keep feet on the ground
Jon Robb ’00 (NDHS) works on wind turbines during the week, flies an airplane on the weekend
The American wind energy industry had its best year ever in 2012, with more than 13,000 megawatts (MW) of energy installed. In the fourth quarter alone, more than 8,000 MW were deployed—an all-time record for the industry and twice as much wind as the previous record set in the fourth quarter 2009. Thanks to this growth, the wind industry was able to reach another milestone in 2012: achieving 60 gigawatts (GW) of cumulative wind capacity in the United States. To put it another way, the United States today has more than 45,000 wind turbines that provide enough electricity to power 14.7 million homes, roughly equivalent to the number of homes in Colorado, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, and Ohio combined.
Across the country, American wind power now supplies more than 10 percent of the electricity needs in nine states and more than 20 percent in Iowa and South Dakota. Notre Dame grad Jon Robb (’00) with his wife, Jennifer, and son, William, on a recent flight in his Cessna.
Wind advocates say that the more energy we get from wind, the less carbon pollution that contributes to climate change goes into the air. They say that with 60 GW installed, it's like taking 17.5 million cars off the road. In addition, as a result of the push into wind technology, according to the U.S. Energy Department, wind companies all across the country—from Iowa and Colorado, to Ohio and Illinois—are retaining and hiring workers to help facilitate the continued growth. At the beginning of 2012, there were more than 80,000 full-time U.S. workers employed in wind energy, says the Energy Dept.
One of those full-time employees benefiting from wind energy is 2000 NDHS graduate Jon Robb. Now in his fourth year as a field technician, Robb currently is working in Illinois for General Electric, doing everything from troubleshooting and repairing to retrofitting and general maintenance on the giant wind turbines that usually are seen in bunches in rural areas of the country.
Getting to top the easy part
Robb has been working on the turbines, which typically soar 270 feet or more into the sky, since completing a rigorous education and training regimen that included a lot of field work. "I was a little nervous the first time I had to go up on a turbine," he says, "but at the top we are tied up securely with harnesses that prevent us from falling too far."
Robb says the way up is the easy part. "I get to the top by climbing a ladder inside the turbine," he says. "We are actually tied to a cable in the center of the ladder, and some turbines even have a climb-assist system that helps us by taking off about 40 pounds, making it much easier to climb."
Once at the top, though, where the actual business end of the turbine is located, Robb and his fellow wind techs actually crawl outside on the hub housing. "It might surprise some people, but we are outside more than inside," he says. "In order to fix things like pitch-system issues with the turbine blades, we have to crawl way out onto the hub."
Not on the ground for long Robb with his 1947 Cessna 120 airplane.
Robb's family lives in St Louis, Mich., about 20 miles south of Mt. Pleasant. But he currently is stationed at the Fowler Ridge Wind Farm in Fowler, Ill., around an hour and a half south of Chicago on the Illinois-Indiana border. He says typical wind farms have between 70 to 90 turbines. "The farm I'm stationed at now has 133, and I've worked at wind farms with more than 200 to 300 turbines, and I've seen some with as few as 40." He says that one turbine alone produces about 1.6 MW of electricity per hour, or "enough to provide electricity for 600 homes."
After a tough week on the turbines, Robb, who wanted to make sure we noted that his Notre Dame experience "was great," usually heads home to Michigan to spend the weekend with his wife, Jennifer, and son, nearly 2-year-old William.
One would think spending 40 hours-plus at the top of giant 300-foot turbines might be enough time for most to be far off the ground. But armed with a pilot's license and a 1947 Cessna 120, he flies as often as he can when he's home and the weather permits. "And sometimes my son comes along for the ride as well. He loves it!"
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