Mahmut Serdar Alakus/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Energy companies like GE and Vestas rely on legions of technicians to keep wind turbines working. An outage of just one tower can jeopardize a company's service contract at a 54-tower field. Andrew Slate, who has worked in the industry for five years, described a typical day on the job. There are more than 65,000 land-based wind turbines in the US.