Job retention in the British offshore sector through greening of the North Sea energy industry

For the case of the UK there are currently three ways of obtaining energy from sea areas, namely from wind, tides and waves. A methodology was developed to determine the future size of the offshore renewable industry based on the concept of employment factor, or the number of people required to maintain each unit of electricity production. An assessment was made of the decline in the number of people employed in oil related jobs in the North Sea and the gap that this could create in the UKʹs economy unless this pool of offshore expertise could find an alternative employment in the renewable sector. The paper will also investigate the effect of gradually transforming the UKʹs oil and gas sector into offshore renewables. If this was to happen by 2050 the UK offshore renewable industry could produce between 127 and 146 TWh of electricity, equivalent to around 57–66% of the current energy consumption in the country.