The wind energy industry has the very real potential to create more than 400,000 permanent domestic jobs or full-time equivalents (FTEs) by 2030.
The scenario which I calculated (See calculations in tables below), is based on the American Wind Energy Association’s goal of reaching 20% wind power penetration by 2030, with 85% of installations being onshore, 15% offshore.
In the wake of political discussion over creating permanent American jobs, I decided to do my own calculation of how wind could create a stable job for hundreds of thousands of Americans. Also, politicians are currently debating the extension of the so-called Production Tax-Credit (PTC) which has helped the wind industry grow its roots in America since 1992, but was allowed by congress to expire Dec. 31st 2011.
The 400,000-figure constitutes a great blend of skilled manufacturing labor, white collar and STEM jobs for wind turbine manufacturing, component manufacturing, wind farm development, jobs at independent power providers and utilities, in consulting, in R&D/Universities and in the financial industry.
The figure does not include jobs related to the disposal, and recycling of decommissioned turbines, nor does it include what I argue to be the thousands of jobs tied to the overdue build-out, modernization and digitalization of the aging US transmission grid, which would help support the increasing power balancing and trade stemming from higher wind penetration.
The best part is, that the jobs are hard to outsource. The continuing development of new, proprietary technologies in the industry as well as a high concentration of jobs being directly attributed to installation and maintenance means that there is a limited possibility and relatively high reluctance to outsource the value chain to countries with poor protection of intellectual property rights, such as China.
It seems like a no-brainer that the high amount of manufacturing, engineering and assembling jobs that this industry creates, is a great way to help the loss of jobs that the US has witnessed in the auto industry. And how can one not help smile at the fact that to a large extent, some of the US’ best wind resources are found in the Midwest (See map below), also known as home of the… wait for it… auto industry.
I calculated the 400,000-figure by pairing readily available information from the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA)on yearly installed, and cumulative installed, wind power in Europe in 2008 and 2010, total amount of European wind industry jobs and the electricity demand forecasts from the Energy Information Agency (EIA). I used the European figures, because the European wind industry is still significantly more mature than the American, and I argue that it better reflects the future dynamics of jobs in on- and offshore parts of the industry in the US. My assumptions on capacity factors and the ratio between jobs in on- and offshore installation and O&M are based on my previous experience, working alongside engineers and technicians in Asset Management for the largest offshore wind farm developer in the World, DONG Energy.
Figure 1 - Wind resource map
Table 1 – Jobs per megawatts of yearly installed capacity and cumulative installed megawatts
Table 2 – Jobs in on- and offshore industry segments in the USA
Read about the PTC-bill, currently pending in the Committee on Ways and Means here: http://action.awea.org/page/content/TakeAction/
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