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More on KentOnline
Wind turbines are one of the fastest-growing renewable energy sources across the UK, with new offshore farms cropping up along the coast each year.
Vattenfall's one hundred turbine farm off the coast of Thanet began operating nine years ago, and at the time was the largest offshore wind farm in the world.
These huge 115 metre-high pieces of machinery need to be closely monitored and maintained by a team of technicians. So what does it take to keep them running?
The wind farm technicians in Thanet work through the seasons to keep the turbines turning
Adam Redding has been working for Swedish energy company Vattenfall for eight years, leaving his job as a motorcycle mechanic to pursue a career in sustainable energy.
He is part of a team of technicians and operations staff from Kent who work for Vattenfall at the Ramsgate headquarters.
The company hopes that keeping the team local will play a part in boosting the economy for Thanet and the surrounding areas.
In the summer months, Adam and the team are often tasked with checking the turbine fans are running properly.
The fans have to work harder when the weather is warmer and sometimes dirt gets lodged in the radiators, stopping the turbines from working.
When this happens, the team have to scale to the top of the structures and clear the fans so they can keep on generating energy.
Adam said it is difficult to explain how different working offshore is to working on land.
"To be out there fairly isolated, working on these heavy industry bits of kit...it's hard to describe," he said.
Although working on the turbines might look dangerous, Adam said the most hair-raising moments usually come from the choppy boat ride out to the turbines.
"Generally the hairiest thing will be a really rough boat ride out there," he said.
"The weather can change quite quickly."
"We don't want to be on there if it's struck by lightning..."
The marine coordinators back at the Ramsgate headquarters need to constantly monitor weather warnings to keep the offshore boat crews safe.
If bad weather is due to strike over the wind farm, the technicians are instructed to sail back to the coast immediately.
Ben Caldwell-Barr has been working as an offshore technician for six years, and says environmental conditions are the most difficult thing to deal with.
"We've had instances where if there's a lightning storm coming in and we're up the turbine we have to get down," he said.
"We don't want to be on there if it's struck by lightning."
Jennifer Roberts, who works as a marine coordinator, said there have been moments where they have had to act quickly to ensure the safety of the offshore team.
"It was low water and we had a vessel that hit something that was hidden in the water," she said.
The boat started to fill with water and the coastguard had to arrive to offload the crew onto another vessel.
"It can be quite chaotic," she said.
The company is in talks to extend the Thanet wind farm in the near future, which would see 34 turbines added to the site by 2023.
