Does anyone here have a hands-on type job at a Hydroelectric Power Plant?

I'm considering a career change to something a bit more environmentally friendly. 

I'm currently a roll repaiman/journeyman machinist at a rolling mill and it is absolute murder on the environment. 

I was a diesel mechanic for about 4 years and I have just over a decade in the machining trade, the last 4 years being journeyman level maintenance machining so I assume I could find a spot at a hydro plant in some sort of maintenance capacity.  

Hoping for some inside info concerning which areas/plants are thriving and which are circling the drain, that sort of thing.

Changing jobs for environmental reasons, well that's cool...very region-specific though. I don't think hydro power's under any threat as an industry in general, any place that has a working hydro power dam will continue to have one for the next few hundred years at least.

It would be funny if it didn't indicate just how poisoned the ground around the mill has become. The immediately surrounding area has very few plants and there are wide swaths that are completely bare earth. Any time it would rain I'd walk through the gate and head toward the mill looking at the completely smooth, muddy ground not quite grasping why it was so oddly captivating and looked so peculiar.

Then it hit me; no worms. Not a single squiggly worm track across at least a football field size area of bare dirt, immediately after a strong rain.

Just out of college I interviewed for a position doing ISO and OSHA for a group doing roller maintenance at a steel mill.  They wanted me to make a 10 year commitment. I figured a guy fresh out of school supervising union labor doing that was a one way ticket to an ulcer, so I passed.  My girlfriend at the time also said if we still lived in the same town in 10 years, she was going to leave me.  After that we picked up and moved without jobs and now she's my wife.  I also have a job I am pretty happy with.

I can understand wanting to change on principal.  I passed on a few opportunities on principal. I didnt want anything nuclear (dad passed due to cancer from his job in that field) and ethically didnt want to work in weapons. 

I am happy being car-related.   

Can you climb a 300 foot ladder? The wind industry isn't without its drawbacks, but it is definitely cool to work on the machines and I would think you could find a job fairly easily. If you don't want to climb or want to work strictly in a machine shop, there are a few companies that specialize in rebuilding gearboxes for the wind industry and they seem to be doing good business.

^^^^^^^^^.  That’s the new thing.  

Power company jobs don’t grow of trees.  And some of these companies aren’t doing the best even though they have a monopoly.  There has been a lot of focus on removing dams, but I doubt any large power dams are going away.  

I train the Army Corps of Engineers guys that run the hydros along the Missouri and used to dispatch their power. I also worked at a nuclear plant that had two hydros as backup power. I actually applied for a position at one of the corps units when I left the nuclear world and they offered me a position at about 40% of the pay I received at the nuclear plant. I went a different direction.

The wind field is still a growth one, but less than it was. If you want a power industry job right now the shortages are all in operations, from plant operators to dispatchers top to bottom. Getting people who can get past the background check, drug test, physical, and certifications and who are willing to work rotating shifts is tougher every day.