The oil and gas industry is predicted to suffer an exodus of skilled workers by 2030, a fallout expected to be absorbed by the renewable energy sector, energy agencies say.
UK offshore wind is forecast to experience huge job growth over the next eight years, during which the oil, gas and coal industries are expected to contract significantly.
By 2030, the country’s offshore wind industry is expected to employ more than 97,000 people, most of whom will work directly in development or operation, the Offshore Wind Industry Council said in a statement today.
Growth in UK offshore wind jobs comes as the country is projected to welcome £155bn of private investment in new offshore wind projects through 2030, with £17bn expected to be invested in the industry this year, OWIC added.
The UK's pipeline of offshore wind projects has grown by 60% in the past year and now stands at 86 GW, driven by leasing rounds announced by the Crown Estate leasing body in England and Scotland (25 GW in Scotland and 8 GW in England).
The switch to yearly auctions for contracts-for-difference from biannual auctions is also speeding up the transition to renewable power.
In the Crown Estate's latest auction of seabed rights, oil and gas companies such as BP PLC (LSE:BP.) and Shell PLC (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL) won development contracts.
Spanish power utility Iberdrola said in January that it was awarded seabed rights for three large-scale offshore wind projects from ScotWind Leasing, including floating offshore wind projects that will be developed in partnership with Shell.
BP meanwhile partnered with German energy company EnBW to develop two offshore wind projects, winning a 2.9 GW lease area off the east coast of Scotland and a 3GW site in the Irish Sea.
The UK government has increased its target for job creation in the offshore wind sector to 60,000, up from 27,000 by 2030, as part of The Offshore Wind Sector Deal proposed under its Net Zero Strategy.
These new workers would support the installation and operation of 40 GW of offshore wind projects, a quadrupling of capacity including 1 GW of floating installations, up from 30 GW previously.
A further 36,000 indirect jobs are expected to be created among companies that supply the offshore wind industry.
According to the Offshore Wind Industry Council, 31,000 people are currently employed in the offshore wind sector, a 15% increase on the 26,000 jobs in the sector last year.
Most of these people (19,600) are employed in offshore wind jobs while 11,500 are working in the supply chain for companies that manufacture products for the offshore wind industry.
Nearly a third of the jobs, 30%, are in Scotland, with Yorkshire and the Humber being the biggest employer of offshore wind jobs in England comprising about 15% of the total. About 19.25% of the country’s offshore wind jobs are occupied by women, with a target of 33% by 2030.
The clean energy sector is expected to create nearly 1.75 million new jobs by 2030 globally, the International Energy Agency says, most of which will be in bioenergy, followed by hydrogen, carbon capture and storage and offshore wind creating, and critical minerals such as rare earths.
By comparison, the IEA says the European oil and gas industry will contract by 2030, losing an estimated 0.14 million (140,000) jobs in the period.
The transition could spur skilled people in the oil and gas industries to move into renewable energy jobs, bringing with them transferable skills.
The Global Wind Organisation has preliminarily agreed to partner with the International Marine Contractors Association and other offshore agencies to mobilise skills from marine contracting into offshore wind, “supporting a Just Transition of people from the fossil fuel-based sectors”, OWIC said.
“The Offshore Wind Sector Deal’s original target of 27,000 direct jobs by 2030 and 30GW of capacity were uplifted as part of the Government’s Net Zero Strategy, proposing at least 60,000 new jobs (direct and indirect), and supporting 40GW of offshore wind projects, with at least 1GW of floating,” the wind industry body said in its latest report.