It seems you can hardly open a newspaper or turn on the television these days without hearing about the latest disaster linked to the economic crisis. Everywhere jobs are being shed, money lost, sectors that once boomed shrivelling up.
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Yet amidst the doom and gloom the latest report from the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) sheds a ray of light. In 2008, more wind capacity was installed in Europe than any other power generating technology – 43% of all new energy capacity was wind – and the growth in installed wind capacity has been matched by an increase in related jobs. According to the new report, 33 new jobs have been created in the EU wind energy sector every single day for the last five years, and it directly employs 108,600 people. The total goes up to 154,000 once indirect jobs are included.
Entitled ‘Wind at Work – wind energy and job creation in Europe’, the new report breaks down the sector’s employment in terms of country, field of work and gender, and analyses probable future trends.
