The growing offshore wind power industry could bring up to 76,000 new jobs to the UK. The Greenpeace-commissioned report, Offshore Wind – Onshore Jobs, was produced by Europe’s leading authority on sustainable energy and carbon management, Energy for Sustainable Development Ltd. The report, being published by Greenpeace and the Department for Trade and Industry, shows that nearly half of the jobs – 36,000 – could be created in the North East of England, where some offshore turbines are already in operation. It claims that the North East, with its long history of manufacturing capacity, strong skills base and access to seaports, is ideally placed to reap the benefits of the wind power industry, which is the world’s fastest growing energy source. Energy for Sustainable Development looked at three different scenarios in which the contribution from offshore wind power provides 10%, 20% and 30% of the UK’s electricity supply by 2020. The Government already has a commitment of having up to 20% of the UK’s energy supplied by renewable resources by 2020. The top case scenario shows that 76,000 jobs could be created and adds that as many as half of these jobs could be in the North East.
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