Jobs in Offshore Renewable sector to triple by 2030

In fact, I was recently reading a report about future trends to watch in the crane engineering sector and it talked about a rising demand for lifting loads in the shipping industry, demand for ore extraction and handling equipment, and a rising demand for material handling equipment in the aerospace and defence industry, (source: ‘Global Crane and Hoist Market - Industry Trends and Forecast to 2027’, Data Bridge Market Research), however, it also warned of future shortages in manpower and declining prices of oil and gas acting as the restraints and challenges in this period up to 2027.

In regard to future employment, the UK government set out an ambitious target in 2019 to more than double the number of women working in the offshore wind energy industry by 2030, increasing the proportion of women from 16% to at 33% over the next two decades under its Offshore Wind Sector deal, and this includes tripling the number of “green collar jobs” in the industry to 27,000 jobs by 2030 – up from 7,200 today.

It is also developing an Offshore Energy Passport, recognised outside the UK, for offshore wind workers to transfer their skills and expertise to other offshore renewables as well as the oil and gas industries and has set targets for increasing the number of apprentices in this sector and reaching net zero emissions by 2050.

“A green recovery with renewables at its heart will be good for consumers and jobs, as well as helping to meet our 2050 net zero emissions target,” said Hugh McNeal, CEO, RenewableUK.

In the US, Reuters is holding a virtual event from May 25-27, on ‘US Offshore Wind 2021’ (USOW21); for businesses looking to invest, find partners and secure contracts in multi-billion dollar US offshore wind projects. It says: “The US offshore wind industry boom, projected to generate nearly 30GW of power in seven East Coast states by 2030, presents a $70bn CAPEX revenue opportunity to businesses in the US supply chain. However, it doesn’t stop there. 2,000 GW of offshore wind resource remains untapped.

“With such unrealized potential and a clear need for rapid industry expansion under the new Biden administration, the event will resolve development bottlenecks and facilitate a multitude of supply chain matchmaking activity. Helping you to meet every major developer, investor, contractor, supplier, manufacturer, policy maker, and key stakeholders.”

We talk about the importance of the renewables sector in the Hoist March issue in our feature on Lifting Attachments on p39 (sign up online for the Hoist digital edition https://www2.ns-mediagroup.com/hoist-digital ) and we have rounded up half a dozen women who have crafted a successful career in this industry to tell us what it’s really like to work in this business and what advice they can give to others.

Why not share your success stories with us on Twitter @Hoist_Magazine and join us on LinkedIn

By Jenny Eagle, editor, Hoist