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Monday 9 November 2009

Thousands of jobs promised for UK wind industry supply chain

The UK Crown Estate has announced the dates of the three Scottish supply chain events for the offshore wind industry, promising that the developments can create tens of thousands of jobs.

According to the organisation the developing wind industry is creating some of the largest infrastructure projects in the world with a potential market investment of over £100bn.

"As owner of the UK seabed we are working in partnership with the four UK governments. The events are to be delivered in Scotland by Scottish Enterprise and Highland and Islands Enterprise. There will be further events held across the UK," Crown Estate stated.

The events are designed to act as a 'marketplace' to enable all those involved in developing offshore wind sites to do business: "A single region cannot deliver the requirements to support the scale of development alone; these events will create the opportunity for local and regional companies to do business right across the UK. Following on from the above dates there will be similar events across Wales, England and Northern Ireland which businesses in Scotland can also be involved with," according to Crown Estates.

"The supply chain is in the broadest sense all the elements that will contribute to offshore wind energy deployment including: components; skilled workforce; infrastructure; also the political and economic environment."

Research by The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) estimates that the UK wind industry jobs will be in the region of 57,000 by 2020, an increase from 5,000 in 2008. In addition, the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) estimates that the number of jobs in the EU wind industry will more than double from 154,000 to 325,000 by 2020.

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