9 – 10 July 2025
North American Wind Academy
About
Upskill your team. Expand your skill set. Develop a deeper understanding of your assets.
Are you searching for opportunities to enrich your team’s skill set? Interested in exploring the wind turbine engineering world? Look no further.
Introducing the ONXY Wind Academy: a comprehensive 2-day course that offers a hands-on and theoretical approach to mastering wind turbine asset engineering. Our tried-and-tested program provides you and your team with practical expertise and technical knowledge that can be applied immediately.
In partnership with Takkion.
About
Develop a deeper understanding of your wind turbine assets.
ONYX Wind Academy is a must for those who want to develop a deeper understanding of their wind turbine assets, recognise the behaviour of their major components, and increase the longevity of such hardware.
The aim of this training course is to arm you with the knowledge and tools to identify and understand the failure modes experienced by the major components of your wind turbines.
The first day will focus on understanding the drivetrain, bearings, lubricants and tower & foundations. The second day covers blades and hands-on demos.
Your Instructors
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Colin McNichols MEng
VP, Engineering (North America)
Colin holds a master’s in mechanical engineering and has worked in the wind industry since 2011. Having started out specialising in gearbox design, he has focused on engineering consulting, analysis and hardware installs at ONYX since 2014.
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Forrest French
ONYX Insight
Forrest leads the deployment and development of our blade root monitoring systems. He brings a strong background in mechanical engineering and system optimisation, having spent four years at ExxonMobil as an optimisation and field engineer. Forrest holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Oklahoma State University.
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Alberto Vera Garcia
Senior Consulting Engineer
Alberto has over 16 years of experience in the wind energy sector, including 11 years working directly or indirectly with Siemens Gamesa. His expertise spans blade structure, certification, design, stress analysis, and validation, with a strong focus on WTG certification strategy aligned with international standards (OD-501 & IEC-61400) and blade structural integrity across design, testing, and fleet support.
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Marc Buonanni
Senior Consulting Engineer
Marc has over 12 years of experience in the wind industry, spanning mechanical engineering, reliability, and technical consulting. His expertise includes drivetrain components, condition monitoring, and field operations, with a focus on improving turbine performance through data-driven maintenance strategies and cross functional project delivery across North America.
-
Colin McNichols MEng
VP, Engineering (North America)
Colin holds a master’s in mechanical engineering and has worked in the wind industry since 2011. Having started out specialising in gearbox design, he has focused on engineering consulting, analysis and hardware installs at ONYX since 2014.
-
Forrest French
ONYX Insight
Forrest leads the deployment and development of our blade root monitoring systems. He brings a strong background in mechanical engineering and system optimisation, having spent four years at ExxonMobil as an optimisation and field engineer. Forrest holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Oklahoma State University.
-
Alberto Vera Garcia
Senior Consulting Engineer
Alberto has over 16 years of experience in the wind energy sector, including 11 years working directly or indirectly with Siemens Gamesa. His expertise spans blade structure, certification, design, stress analysis, and validation, with a strong focus on WTG certification strategy aligned with international standards (OD-501 & IEC-61400) and blade structural integrity across design, testing, and fleet support.
-
Marc Buonanni
Senior Consulting Engineer
Marc has over 12 years of experience in the wind industry, spanning mechanical engineering, reliability, and technical consulting. His expertise includes drivetrain components, condition monitoring, and field operations, with a focus on improving turbine performance through data-driven maintenance strategies and cross functional project delivery across North America.
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