WIND BRINGS THE JOBS

91 per cent growth for UK wind energy employment; Wind employment withstands recession and slow GDP growth…Offshore wind farm development, port refits and supply chain manufacturing set to further boost sector employment in the years ahead
1 February 2011 (RenewableUK)

"RenewableUK, the country's leading voice for the renewable energy industry, has today published the most comprehensive ever employment figures for the wind energy industry, showing a 91 per cent increase in full-time employment in the sector between 2007/8 and 2009/10. The growth in employment stands in contrast to the overall UK employment level, which has shrunk during the same period by 3.4 per cent.

"…[Working for a Green Britain; Employment and Skills in the UK Wind & Marine Industries] was jointly commissioned by RenewableUK and EU Skills, the Sector Skills Council for the Power Sector, from Warwick University's Institute for Employment Research (IER) and Cambridge Econometrics."

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"The findings are based on primary data collected from 253 companies with business activities in the wind and marine energy sectors. Of the 10,800 full-time-equivalent (FTE) employees working directly in the sectors, the majority, or 56 per cent, are associated with large-scale onshore wind (turbine output of over 100kW), followed by 29 per cent in offshore wind, whilst 7–8 per cent of the overall workforce is employed in small-scale wind and around the same proportion in wave and tidal energy.

"The report identifies 9,200 FTE employees as working in the large-scale wind energy industries in 2009/10. A comparable study commissioned by RenewableUK from Bain & Company in 2008 recorded 4,800 FTE employees in the sector for the 2007/8 period…"

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"Announcements by the Government to continue with ports investments in last year's Spending Review, followed by a host of inward investment decisions in the supply chain (including Siemens' recent decision to locate major turbine manufacturing plant in the UK), stand to further advance employment in the sector in the coming years…

"…[A] second part of the report…[expected in March] will include an analysis of potential UK employment in the sector by 2020 according to a range of industry development scenarios."