Isra-Mart srl:Wind of change – renewables industry reveals jobs 'bonanza'

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Employment in the UK's burgeoning wind energy industry has almost doubled over the past three years, rising 91 per cent between 2007/8 and 2009/10 to over 10,000 full time employees.

That is the conclusion of a new report that surveyed over 250 companies with business activities in the wind and marine energy sectors and found that the sectors currently employ around 10,800 full-time-equivalent employees.

The study was carried out by Warwick University's Institute for Employment Research (IER) and Cambridge Econometrics and commissioned by trade body RenewableUK and the EU Sector Skills Council for the Power Sector.

It revealed that over 6,000 people are currently employed by firms associated with onshore wind farms, around 3,100 are employed by the offshore wind sector and nearly 900 people work on marine energy projects.

It also huge expansion for the sector over the past few years, noting that a similar survey undertake by RenewableUK and Bain & Company in 2008 recorded that 4,800 full time equivalent employees were working in the sectors in 2007/8.

"Two conclusions from the results of this remarkable study are immediately obvious: this sector has withstood the negative GDP growth of the UK recession and bucked the overall employment trend in a spectacular way by a near doubling of the workforce," said Maria McCaffery MBE, Chief Executive of RenewableUK.

The report follows a series of announcement last month confirming that wind turbine manufacturers Siemens and Gamesa have agreed to locate new facilities in the UK creating several thousand new direct and indirect jobs.

"It is now obvious that acting decisively on reducing carbon emissions and diversifying our energy supply will bring a double bonanza of increased green energy yields and economic growth," said McCaffery. "This study presents a compelling case for increasing our base of installed renewable energy devices. There is a clear link between sector activity and UK employment gains."

RenewableUK said the report would be followed by an additional study, to be released in the run up to the March Budget, detailing the potential of the sector to create new jobs.

Benj Sykes, director of innovations at the Carbon Trust, said the report gave "a very encouraging picture of an emerging supply chain", adding that Carbon Trust figures suggested that the offshore wind energy sector alone could create up to 70,000 jobs by 2020