NEW ENERGY JOBS MAY BE HERE AND THEY MAY BE THERE

Jobs. In a world rushing into recession, the New Energy industries offer urgently needed domestic opportunities.

Or do they?

Case-in-point: The UK

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in the spring that the nation’s New Energy sector could be what the offshore oil industry of the 1970s and 1980s was, an economic rejuvenation. He talked about 160,000 new jobs.

Wind was first on the Brown government’s list. Although development is scheduled and installations have begun, the jobs have not materialized in anything like the numbers promised.

Why?

The UK has resisted the kind of feed-in tariff (FiT) adopted by other EU nations and has failed to streamline the permitting process for offshore wind and hydrokinetic (wave, tide, current) installations. As a result, far fewer have started up than should, given the UK potential.

The Brown government has aggressively attacked the latter problem and has begun taking up the former. Unfortunately, it may be too late to realize the full benefit of the coming boom in capacity.

According to a recent British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) report, Germany, Spain and Denmark have captured the onshore turbine manufacturing market – and 133,000 jobs.

The UK still has a chance to get in on the offshore wind opportunity and could yet make Prime Minister Brown a prophet by using the expertise developed in offshore oil. It will be competing against Denmark, which has been doing offshore wind for nearly 7 years.

The next opportunity will be in hydrokinetic energy. The UK is aggressively researching the technology and reaping R&D benefits. But hydrokinetic energy is probably too far from maturity to impact the current economic crisis or spur recovery.

Ironically – and most unexpectedly – the UK has triumphed not in blue collar jobs in the New Energy sector but in white collar jobs. London has become the most important center of emissions trading and New Energy financial services in the world. It is green of an entirely different kind.

Maybe the jobs haven't materialized because the industry is just getting going. (click to enlarge)

The Green Pound; Greenery may create jobs – but not the ones its boosters think
November 13, 2008 (The Economist)

WHO
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown; Britaish environmental/enegy advocates; British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) (Gordon Edge, chief economist)

WHAT
Offshore wind energy development has not yet benefited the UK as much as had been hoped and hopes are now rising that the development of hydrokinetic energy (from waves, tides and currents) will translate into domestic industry, new jobs and economic benefits.

The jobs in hydrokinetic energy so far are mainly at the testing stations in the Orkney Islands. (click to enlarge)

WHEN
- Experts say the UK has “dithered” over its New Energy potential for 15 years.
- 1970s/80s: The UK developed expertise in ocean environments with its North Sea oil industry.
- 2002: Denmark built its first offshore wind installation.
- November 6: BP pulled out of a wind project in Kent and discontinued participation in UK wind projects.
- November 10: Vattenfall and Scottish Power assumed investment in the Kent project.
- 2020: The UK pledeged to get 15% of its power from New Energy sources.
- 2050: The UK pledged to cut its emissions 80%.

WHERE
- BP will focus on wind energy development in the U.S.
- Vattenfall is based in Sweden.
- The project turned over to Vattenfall/Scottish Power by BP is at the Isle of Grain off Kent, “…a blowy expanse of industrialised desolation…”
- The Marine Energy Research Center is off Scotand’s Orkney Islands.

WHY
- BP’s move from the UK to the U.S. was explained in part by an estimated $15 billion (£10 billion) a year in new New Energy subsidies.
- The Vattenfall/Scottish Power project will be a 300MW, £780m wind farm.
- UK interest in wind: (1) It offers emissions-free energy toward the UK’s goals of emissions reduction and New Energy; (2) New Energy is a growth industry.
- The UK potentials for wind energy, offshore wind energy and hydrokinetic energy are all among the best in Europe.
- Many UK nuclear and coal plants are aging and will soon go offline.
- The Marine Energy Research Center should make the UK ready to lead in hydrokinetic energy when the technology matures.
- London’s emissions trading and New Energy financial services markets are the biggest in the world.

The potential is enormous. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Gordon Edge, chief economist, BWEA: “We’ve missed a trick with onshore wind…”
- Gordon Edge, chief economist, BWEA: “Sometimes you do despair a bit of British manufacturing…”