A piece of the action
19.06.2015
The Summer School at TU Delft has been set up especially for those who are very proficient in German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish or Icelandic. (Photo: EWAE)
Factories and wind farms pour money into the coffers, create new jobs and arouse desires. Politicians are making an extra effort to provide training for bright minds and qualified workers because in Europe alone there is a need for more than 7,000 service technicians.
In terms of policy, many countries are rolling out the proverbial red carpet for wind energy. The young technology has several arguments on its side. At least on land, it is an inexpensive source of energy that wonderfully fulfils the climate protection goals of governments and does not overburden consumers with electricity fees. In addition, the growth of wind energy creates jobs and adds value.
No wonder then that politicians are putting a lot of thought into location advantages for companies willing to settle. “We are investing in new research centres, and in that we have commerce on our side. Ireland has great potential. With the development of science, we might be able to influence the development of technology worldwide,” stated Damien English, Irish Minister for Skills, Research and Innovation. Specifically, he is talking about twelve new research centres, in which Ireland has invested € 19 million and industry € 10 million. This fits well with the Celtic Tiger’s new strategy of concentrating on innovation for growth and new jobs. This is also true for five new world-class research centres, which Ireland will invest € 155 million in, if the industry brings a further € 90 million to the table.
Those research centres may not have anything to do with wind energy directly, but they do show a clear trend: Ireland wants to re-position itself as a research location and is using the resources of the European Union to achieve this. For this purpose, € 1.25 billion will be flowing to the island over the next seven years from the Horizon 2020 programme alone. English is especially hopeful with regard to the 12 research institutes and a possible centre of excellence in offshore wind technology. “The focus is on designs and technologies for wind power and tidal power. We not only want to train new engineers, but also to expand production, service and maintenance,” he said. And the bottom line is that this means jobs.
So far, Ireland has just one offshore wind farm, Arklow Bank located off the coast and 188 onshore wind farms producing 1.9 GW. The industry employs 3,400 people directly, predominantly in the maintenance business. There is also help from the government for qualification. “The government will cover between 30 and 40 % of the cost for courses and training. This is true both for further qualification of employees who are already working in wind energy as well as for people who want to enter the industry by taking such courses,” said Michael McLoughlin of the Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA). In this regard, the organisation has joined forces with companies to found the ‘Wind Skillnet’ network. Its courses are tailored to the needs of the wind industry and cross-financed by the National Training Fund, which is part of the Department of Education and Skills.
Strategic considerations
The Scots have a similar strategy. The country, which is largely independent of Great Britain, has just under 12,000 people working in the field of renewable energy. With new targets to reduce CO2 emissions by 80 % by 2050, settling funding and the wind resource, the government is pushing for more investments and the creation of new jobs. Scotland already has 60 % of the total installed wind energy capacity in the UK. That amounts to 188 wind farms with 4.9 GW. In addition, there are 197 MW of offshore wind farms, and proposals for a further 3.2 GW at sea.
“It would be good if the industry would consider in advance who will be maintaining all the wind turbines that are being built right now,” says Carsten Andersen of the Danish Wind Power Academy. (Photo: DWPA)
“At the moment, the supply chain is growing in Scotland,” reported Andy Vaughan from the state development partners, Scottish Enterprise. The infrastructure also includes academic support. At the University of Strathclyde, there is a new Industrial Doctoral Training Centre, which is supporting the industry with a new generation of specialists, and there is the Institute for Energy Systems at the University of Edinburgh.
It is also interesting that policy provides for companies to receive grants for training their personnel. For general skills, they cover 50 % of course fees, and in the case of company-specific requirements, they cover 25 %. “There are special programmes that are open to both Scottish as well as foreign companies. Behind this are economic considerations for new jobs in Scotland,” said Vaughan.
Funding attracts companies
The English neighbours are also working on this. The so-called Offshore Wind Industry Strategy was jointly adopted approximately 18 months ago by policy makers and commerce. “This will create new jobs in the long term. Policy will provide a sufficient market in return,” said James Beal of UK Trade & Investment, an offshore wind investment organisation.
The deal is beginning to bear fruit. Last year, Siemens Wind Power promised to build a factory for the production of rotor blades and provide the infrastructure for the shipment of components to Port Hull. This will create 1,000 new jobs in production and processing. Recruiting for the site began in early March. In a first step, engineers and specialists in production were advertised for, along with health and safety managers, and marine operations managers.
Carolyn Woolway, Head of Human Resources for Siemens’ Hull project, stated: “These are absolutely key positions, as they will be the first wave of people who will be instrumental in getting our blade factory and harbour operations at Alexandra Dock up and running.” Woolway hopes to find the sought-after professionals locally. However, their qualification and training will take place in Denmark. “The new recruits are likely to spend most of their first year in Denmark, learning from Siemens’ European operation and looking at how systems there can be adapted for the UK”.
The industry hub Denmark
In this regard, Denmark is playing an important role with Siemens and Vestas as leading manufacturers. There is no shortage there of skilled workers in the areas of service and maintenance. “There are enough well-trained people with electrical and mechanical professions. But of course we are constantly looking for new employees who want to work for us,” explained Esben Schmidt, CEO of Apro Wind A/S. The group consists of three different companies. It carries out the construction of onshore and offshore facilities, cable laying, maintenance, and other services related to wind energy. In total, Apro employs 1,000 people in several European countries. “Many of them would like offshore work because it is better paid,” said Esben. Generally speaking, Apro is a generous employer, which pays all employees according to the high Danish standards, regardless of their origin and location.
Specialists in servicing wind turbines are being sought in many countries. (Photo Siemens)
This is rare and may be due to the fact that the company, which was founded in 2014, is financed and owned by the Danish government’s ATP Pension Fund. In Denmark the wage level is rather high, which can cause problems for domestic service providers compared to their international competition in terms of pricing. But service in Denmark is not a problem because many turbines are located offshore and maintained by the manufacturers via full maintenance contracts.
“However, it would be good if the industry would consider in advance who will be maintaining all the wind turbines that are being built right now. In Europe alone, according to different associations, there is a need for at least 7,000 additional professionals. In the USA, it will soon be significantly more than that,” said Carsten Andersen of the Danish Wind Power Academy. The privately run independent service provider generates almost 30 % of its business with overseas customers. They only offer special advanced courses for the employees of manufacturers, energy utilities or third parties. This applies to certain types of turbine, servicing, troubleshooting, drives, or performance. “We first look at the performance data of the turbines and find out what the employees can already do with the machines, what expertise they have, and what the customer wants. From this we then develop an efficient and brief training programme. This is something we often take on for large energy suppliers,” added Andersen.
The boom is producing a bottleneck
This is based on the philosophy of continually improving the knowledge of technicians, thus improving the performance of the machines. This is not a bad idea, since the majority of European turbines are less than ten years old, and operating the new generation of turbines, which are packed with electrical technology, will not be getting any easier without having a long track record. Manufacturers are taking advantage of this. They have entered the service market with competitive pricing and full-maintenance models, and now they have the problem of recruiting the right staff to do the work. One solution is head-hunting within the industry, whereby good people are lured with better salaries. Another trend is to assign certain tasks to subcontractors in order to improve profit margins. The manufacturers take over the demanding work and let others do the lubricating and greasing.
The development in Germany is interesting. The economic boom engine is running at full speed there, and for service providers, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find suitable personnel. At the same time, the stock has grown to almost 25,000 machines now. It is actually a lucrative business, but you could paper the wall with the job offers from manufacturers and third-party providers. “On land, the service and maintenance business is really hopping, and there is additional competition with offshore wind farms. At the same time, many technicians are switching to indoor service, because the hard work wears them down. This will really strain the availability of personnel,” said Nils Erdmann of Deutsche WindGuard.
Service providers in Germany cannot rely on government subsidies like the ones in Ireland or Scotland. At least not directly. So far, German job centres are providing educational vouchers for the unemployed. Among other things, they have been redeemed at institutions for continuing education that have trained suitable candidates to become service technicians for wind energy. Their courses are now almost empty. “For us it is difficult to even get eligible participants because they quickly find work from the job centre even without the education voucher,” said Andreas Petersen of the Bremerhaven Wind Centre, which is operated by the German Trade Union Federation.
The situation is also difficult for academics. In Germany there are currently 10,000 job vacancies for engineers, including many offers from wind energy. “Graduates tend to go into machine and vehicle engineering, or into the area of IT security,” said Marco Dadomo of the Association of German Engineers.
Co-operating universities
The European Academy of Wind Energy (EAWE) wants to encourage interest in wind energy research among students with its campaign “Shape the Future of Wind Energy Research”. The growing network with nearly 40 members from research institutions and universities offers a variety of training and study opportunities in the broad field of wind energy. Yearly seminars for postdoctoral researchers and a biannual international conference guarantee knowledge transfer. The offering is completed by the seminars and conferences organized by the miscellaneous members.
Without a doubt the flagship of the EAWE is the Erasmus Mundus courses European Wind Energy Master (Msc degree). This two-year study programme is jointly provided by the Delft University of Technology, the University of Oldenburg, the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. These are prestigious addresses in wind energy research. The English language programme offers four specialization areas and ends with a double degree. “In addition to training, the EAWE mainly engages in the field of research, said James Mann, President of EAWE and Professor at DTU. “The members cooperate in various research programmes and work towards a common long-term research strategy to further advance research at European level,” he added. Therefore, the organisation is currently preparing a separate scientific journal for wind energy research.
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