Wind of change – renewables industry reveals jobs ‘bonanza’

New figures show employment in the wind and marine energy industry has almost doubled over last three years01 Feb 2011Employment 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 ...