Green Jobs: Urgent need for 569,000 technicians to build global onshore and offshore wind fleet

The global economy now have substantial potential for green jobs that  are preserving or restoring the environment and our planet.

Rapid growth in onshore and offshore wind capacity is generating huge demand for skilled workforce, a new report reveals  .New figures from Global Wind Organisation (GWO) and Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) show that 569,000 technicians will be needed to build and maintain a global onshore and offshore wind fleet that will increase in size by 67% by 2026.

With rapid growth of the wind energy capacity at the heart of the world’s plans to achieve net zero by 2050, it is vital that governments enact policies that support this expanding workforce. New capacity, modern grids and a just transition all require a strong and sustainable workforce at their foundation. This skilled, modern workforce will be a great reward for countries advancing with their energy transition plans.

Almost 30,000 new technicians are expected to join the global wind workforce every year. But the Global Wind Workforce Outlook 2022-2026 highlights an urgent need for faster growth in industry standard safety and technical training capacity to meet the forecast gaps in worker supply

“There are enormous and transformative job creation opportunities brought by wind power to countries around the world and this report reminds us that for the industry to grow sustainably, a rapidly expanding workforce must be given the opportunity to work safely, with training according to industry best practice, so they can do their jobs with competence and live healthy lives”. Ben Backwell, GWEC CEO said.

The global market for wind turbines reached a  record in 2021 with wind turbines with a total capacity of 97,5 Gigawatt installed around the globe, after 92,7 Gigawatt in 2020. The overall capacity of all wind turbines worldwide has now exceeded 840 Gigawatt (after 742,5 Gigawatt in 2020), enough to provide more than 7% of the global power demand.

This equals a growth rate of 13%, compared to 14% one year earlier and 10% in 2019.

According to preliminary figures from China, the country alone installed 55,8 Gigawatt in 2021, once again beating its own record of 2020 when 52 Gigawatt were installed. This is equivalent to a growth of 19,4%. China has now 344 Gigawatt of wind turbines installed across the country.

The US as the world’s number 2 market saw robust growth of 12,5 Gigawatt, although substantially less than in 2020 when almost 17 Gigawatt were added. The installed wind power capacity in the US is now close to 135 Gigawatt.