New research published by the Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC) shows that private sector investment of £60.8bn billion will be injected across the UK over the next five years in developing, constructing and operating offshore wind projects as the industry expands rapidly to help the Government to achieve its net-zero emissions goal. The average annual investment will be £10.1bn between 2021 and 2026, and investment in 2026 alone will reach a peak of £10.6bn.

Allied to this, the number of people working in direct and indirect jobs in the UK’s world-leading offshore wind industry is set to rise significantly, from 26,000 currently to over 69,800 by 2026.

The Offshore Wind Skills Intelligence Report was commissioned by OWIC’s Investment in Talent Group which was set up as part of the landmark Offshore Wind Sector Deal agreed with Government in 2019. The survey is by far the most comprehensive ever conducted in the UK into the full extent of the economic benefits of offshore wind and was undertaken by RenewableUK, the National Skills Academy for Rail and independent data analysts Opergy.

Energy Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said: “The environmental benefits of our world-leading offshore wind sector are clear to see, but as this study shows we’ll also have tens of thousands more jobs created in the sector in just the next few years alone. This is a sector with a bright future and earlier this week we published the Government’s North Sea Transition Deal which sets out how the UK will maximise the huge potential of our natural resources for clean renewable energy and attract more than £60bn of private investment over the next five years, creating jobs while also ending our contribution to climate change by 2050.”

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