Mechanical

In the 3rd module of NW-REI's curriculum I am learning about many things mechanical. We have studied gear drives, shafts, fasteners (keys), and are moving into bearings and multiple shaft drives.
This has been a very informative section so far, with more lab work than written material. The trainers we use have a bed-plate with various mounting configurations drilled into it, a few motor types, and a large selection of mounting spacers, gears, hardware, shafts, and a tool selection. We have experimented with various gear set-ups and what written material there is coincides sensibly to the physical practice we are getting in class. So much of this makes perfect sense for turbines. I can see that the functions we are performing relate directly to the mechanical repairs we will be performing on wind machines.

I like this picture. It is an automotive image however many of the gear types are gears that reside in gearboxes inside the turbine nacelles that increase main rotor shaft speeds from 12-20 up to 1800 rpm's.
Some of these machines weigh as much as 18 tons.

The answer is blowing in the wind.