Offshore wind can transform coastal communities in East Anglia via the creation of thousands of skilled jobs as the volume of installed capacity in the southern North Sea grows, the East of England Energy Group’s Southern North Sea conference heard today.
Renewable UK chief executive Hugh McNeal said the region is already home to oil and gas companies that can transfer skills as the government looks to generate one third of the UK’s energy from the offshore wind by 2030.
“This is the moment for East Anglia to lock in transformation and regeneration opportunities,” he told delegates during the opening session of the conference in Norwich.
McNeal said R-UK is spearheading a joint industry and government taskforce dubbed ‘Investment in Talent’ in order to help ensure the UK workforce has the skilled required to meet the demands of the growing industry.
“Full time jobs in the sector will treble in the next decade or so – and we have set new targets to boost the number of women and people from BAME backgrounds in the industry,” he said.
The R-UK chief executive praised commitments developers have recently made in the region.
Vattenfall has signed a memorandum of understanding with Peel Ports Great Yarmouth to use the facility as an operations base for its 1.8GW each Norfolk Vanguard and Norfolk Boreas projects.
Innogy has, meanwhile, already set up shop in Harwich, where it is currently building a full-time operational base for its 353MW Galloper offshore wind farm off Suffolk (pictured).