According to the Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC), over 100,000 people will be needed by 2030 to maintain and run offshore wind infrastructure as installations ramp up.
The report said the industry will need to be able to attract and retain an average of 10,000 people per year. The UK’s existing offshore wind workforce has increased to over 32,000 – up 4 per cent compared to the end of 2021.
This includes over 17,000 direct jobs and nearly 15,000 indirect jobs. In the short-to-medium term, a rapid growth in jobs is needed as several offshore wind farms progress to the construction phase - 88,509 jobs are forecast to be required by 2026, the report said.
The government has set the industry a target of reaching 50GW of capacity by 2030, including 5GW of floating wind – up from 13.66GW today.
Two years ago, analysis by Energy Systems Catapult suggested that the UK electricity system could handle up to 150GW of offshore wind, provided essential technical...