Offshore wind jobs
Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) took a look at the potential of the offshore sector for jobs and the economy and found that sales could triple and jobs more than double.
In 2021, the study Volle Kraft aus Hochseewind (“Full power from offshore wind”) estimates that Germany will have more than 33,000 jobs in the offshore wind sector, some 18,000 more than two years ago. The study found that small and midsize firms will create around 90 percent of the added value from offshore wind power. "In the fields of project development, the supply chain, construction services, and other services, I still see a lot of growth opportunity for midsize companies," says Thomas Ull, SME expert at PWC loan.
Norbert Schwieters, partner at PWC and director of the consulting firm's energy department, believes that the offshore sector will be a job creator for all of Germany: "Revenue from trade tax alone is likely to increase from the current 64 million euros to as much as 240 million euros by 2021."Conducted on behalf of German offshore wind association WAB, PWC's study assumes that 8.7 gigawatts of wind power capacity will be installed off the German coast by 2021. Along the entire value chain from planners to equipment manufacturers and servicing technicians, revenue is to grow from 5.9 to 22.4 billion euros a decade from now – and that does not even include revenue from the sale of offshore wind power.
As Meyer explains, wind turbine components come from firms all over Germany, not only from the coast. "Gearboxes, casings, and a rotor of us are primarily manufactured in the south, whereas turbine firms in the north assemble everything. And when it comes to the production of diesel engines for installation vessels, for instance, one major production plant is on the border to Switzerland, not on the North Sea coast. In other words, the entire country will benefit from offshore wind power, especially in terms of jobs," says WBA head Ronny Meyer. Some 1,000 firms took part in a telephone survey for the study.
(Regine Krüger / Craig Morris)
