CLIMATEWIRE
Director general Tom Foulkes at the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) said:
“The UK’s track record does not yet meet the rhetoric in the British Government’s renewable energy deployment - less than two percent of energy is currently generated from renewables’.
“To replace 15 percent of the UK’s energy generation with renewable sources by 2020 will require rapid upscaling of the renewables sector. In particular the large scale expansion of the offshore wind industry, which has the potential to meet a significant proportion of the UK’s energy demands. However development of that scale presents many challenges - not least ensuring the UK has the skills base to deliver these results.
“Research commissioned by Renewable UK has estimated that if 20GW of offshore capacity were constructed by 2020 over 45,000 new jobs could be created. Obviously this would require massive investment in developing the construction, maintenance and design expertise to fill these roles. Government and industry will need to work together to determine how we can best achieve this, whether it be through ramped-up funding for university civil engineering departments, or further support for workplace apprenticeship schemes.”
The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) will be releasing a report further exploring the opportunities presented by the offshore renewables sector in the UK and how they can be fully maximised on Thursday 18th March.