Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group (Areg) has urged north-east businesses to capitalise on opportunities being created by the offshore windpower sector as a renewable-energy event opened today at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre.
The two-day Offshore Wind conference and exhibition is organised by Scottish Renewables and Scottish Enterprise.
Areg chief operating officer Morag McCorkindale said: “Offshore wind presents huge business opportunities for Scotland, particularly for Aberdeen City and Shire with its world-class oil and gas expertise, but it is vital that we create the right underpinning for the new industry.
“The Offshore Wind conference is major industry platform and a key enabler for helping to put this robust infrastructure in place.
“A fundamental element of the required infrastructure is the research and demonstration required to prove new turbines for this new market.
“One of Areg’s flagship projects, the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre, is not only well positioned to deliver this but would support innovative energy technologies – deployment, operations and maintenance methods – that will create further jobs and growth in the future.”
The number of jobs in the wind-energy industry has risen by 91% in the past three years while overall UK employment has fallen by 3.4%, according to the most comprehensive employment figures for the sector to date.
A study commissioned jointly by RenewableUK and Energy and Utility Skills collected data from 253 companies with business activities in the wind and marine energy sectors.
Of the 10,800 full-time-equivalent (FTE) employees working directly in the sectors, 56% are associated with large-scale onshore wind, 29% in offshore wind with 7-8% of the overall workforce employed in small-scale wind and around the same percentage in wave and tidal energy.
The report identifies 9,200 FTE employees as working in the large-scale wind energy industries in 2009-10 compared with only 4,800 FTE in 2007-08.
Maria McCaffery, chief executive of RenewableUK, said the increase in jobs had, to a large extent, mirrored the increase in electricity contributions from renewable sources, chiefly wind, to the national grid.
She added: “Latest statistics show that renewables have contributed over 27% of all electricity consumed in Scotland in the third quarter of 2010, with wind equalling all other renewable technologies put together.
“This study presents a compelling case for increasing our base of installed renewable energy devices.
“There is a clear link between sector activity and UK employment gains. Creating a policy framework that ensures that our wind, wave and tidal resources are fully utilised will create jobs and stimulate economic activity at a time when we need it most.”
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