UK Renewables Set New Records

Recently released, the UK’s new national infrastructure plan saw the Government shifting incentives toward offshore wind power—and away from onshore wind farms and solar parks projects.

Likewise, the recently published “Levy Control Framework” will see a boost to the UK’s spending on solar, wind and other renewable energy projects to £7.6 billion pounds a year by 2020, compared with the current £2.35 billion. However, the current target is mostly for wind – 31 gigawatts of planned offshore and onshore wind – which would bring renewables to 11% of the energy mix by 2020.

Daniel Ward, a Director at WRS, a specialist in recruiting for the skills required across all offshore disciplines, sees this as a very positive step in terms of job opportunities for the sector as a whole. He says: “The focus on renewables is set to boost its share of the total energy mix in the UK to 30% by 2020, which is significantly higher than the European Union target of 20% and this will require substantial investment in headcount to achieve.”

The UK already leads the world in offshore wind with nearly 3 GW installed (reported 2012), which is more than the rest of the world put together. With the world’s largest offshore wind farm located about 9 miles off the coast in the Irish Sea, the development of which created around 5,000 jobs, the sector really is at the forefront of the offshore market. In addition, renewable energy (including hydro) reached its highest level yet in the UK during the third quarter of 2013, providing 13.2% of the UK’s electricity, up from 11.7% from Q3 2012. With about 20 GW of renewable energy installed in the UK and 11 GW more in the pipeline for wind, both onshore and offshore, the situation is looking extremely positive for the sector as a whole and for those wanting to get on-board in terms of work opportunities.

However offshore wind is not the cheapest renewable option as it currently costs about double the price of onshore wind. So, for further growth, there will need to be more emphasis placed on driving down the cost of offshore wind so that the UK can benefit from the rewards of new turbine factories and of course, thousands of new jobs. Daniel says, “It is vital that the market can invest with confidence so that cost reductions can be achieved and the sector can sustainably grow and see the creation of a wide range of jobs requiring a diverse range of skills.”

There has been significant growth in the UK’s offshore wind pipeline with total capacity increasing from 10.6 GW to 15.1 GW to the end of June 2013 and since then a number of significant offshore wind projects, with an estimated capacity of around 5 GW have entered the planning system.

Daniel summarises: “Investors are already being attracted from around the world, which is vital as the UK needs to replace our ageing power stations and meet renewable energy and carbon targets too. The UK will lose about a quarter of its capacity to generate energy in the next decade as coal fire power stations are decommissioned and its clearly evident that wind energy is the best way to bridge this looming shortfall. And offshore wind technology will help the UK reach legally-binding targets to cut required carbon emissions. All these factors point to a period of sustained growth in offshore and it’s important that the UK promotes the career opportunities this offers, so that we don’t see the skills shortages that some other areas of the global energy industries are currently facing.”

This growth and opportunity for jobs is not confined to the UK though. Further afield, about 141 GW of offshore wind projects are built, under construction, consented, or planned in 17 EU countries, which is well over 30 times the capacity of the 4 GW currently installed. And if all the projects currently planned go through, offshore wind will provide 13.1% of Europe’s electricity, powering 130 million homes. According to the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), the offshore industry is expected to create 169,000 jobs by 2020 and 300,000 by 2030.

Press release, January 16, 2014; Image: dongenergy