Offshore Energy Industry Proves to Be Employment Mecca in UK

RenewableUK released an updated study into employment in wind and marine energy in the United Kingdom. Working for a Green Britain and Northern Ireland reveals that together these important growth industries – wind, wave, and tidal energy – now directly employ 18,465 people full time, a 74% increase in jobs since 2010.

The report shows that the offshore wind sector saw the biggest growth between 2010 and 2013, with the number of direct jobs doubling from 3,151 to 6,830. When including indirect jobs (companies that supply goods and services to the sector, such as gearbox component manufacturers) the wind, wave and tidal energy industries support the employment of over 34,000 people.

The research also highlights the fact that women make up 20% of the sector’s workforce – this is lower than the proportion of women in technical and professional occupations in the UK, but proportionally higher than in the power sector overall, thereby demonstrating the sector’s success in attracting women into the energy industry.

Looking to the future the report predicts that more than 70,000 jobs could be created over the next decade, nearly half of which would be in offshore wind. RenewableUK’s Chief Executive, Maria McCaffery said: “The offshore wind sector alone could be employing nearly 45,000 workers in the 2020s. As an industry we are truly creating jobs out of fresh air.”

She concluded saying, “The scale of the opportunity is massive, but success is not guaranteed. To really harness the economic benefits of our technologies we must ensure that there is certainty for industry. Certainty on future levels of deployment of wind, wave and tidal energy over the next decade will enable firms to invest in the right people and the right skills, and ensure we maximize the number of green collar jobs we create as we transform our electricity system. We want to ensure offshore wind is given the same opportunity to prosper as the North Sea oil and gas industries had in their heyday”.

Also this week, the Thornton Bank offshore wind farm was officially inaugurated in Belgium.

With a capacity of 325 megawatts (MW), the wind farm is the largest in the Belgian North Sea and will provide green electricity to 300,000 households each year. Eight European banks, the German and Danish export credit agencies and the European Investment Bank have provided around € 900 million in financing and venture capital. The total investment amounts to approx. € 1.3 billion. RWE Innogy is the largest private shareholder in Thornton Bank wind farm with a share of 26.7%.

Dr. Hans Bünting, CEO of RWE Innogy, stated: "At the present time, the Thornton Bank offshore wind farm is unique throughout Europe in many respects. Equipped with the largest offshore turbines currently available, the wind farm has been setting standards in terms of construction, network connection and operation. The implementation of the project together with partners has been trendsetting in particular. In the future, there will hardly be any companies who are able to tackle the construction of offshore wind farms on their own – such projects are just too capital-intensive. That is why for me Thornton Bank is a successful example of the energy transition in Europe."

All in all, it took almost ten years to complete the wind farm, from the award of the first permits and concessions and the search for financial investors through to the development of technical solutions and actual construction. "During all these years, C-Power and all its partners performed pioneering work resulting today in an offshore wind energy farm that has become a worldwide reference", said Jaak Rutten, CEO of C-Power, the consortium that developed and realized the Thornton Bank offshore wind farm.

The 54 wind turbines of the Thornton Bank wind farm are situated some 30 kilometers off the coast of Belgium in waters up to 30 meters deep. Construction of Thornton Bank was executed in three phases. During the first phase, six wind turbines of the 5-megawatt class were built on gravity-based foundations. Thornton Bank 1 was commissioned as early as 2009. Thornton Bank 2 consists of 24 wind turbines of the 6-megawatt class which were installed on steel structures, so-called jacket foundations. These turbines of the second phase were fully commissioned at the beginning of this year. The third and last phase of the wind farm development saw the installation of 24 wind turbines of the 6-megawatt class which have been generating green electricity since July of this year.