Global Wind Workforce Outlook 2025-2030
Workforce Development is now a Core Industrial Challenge Across global markets, workforce constraints are becoming more visible and more consequential. Many countries face shortages of experienced technicians, competition for skilled labour across industrial sectors, limited training capacity, challenges associated with workforce ageing, and inconsistent application of internationally recognised training standards. These pressures highlight why workforce development is increasingly recognised as a strategic industrial issue rather than a peripheral concern. Project-level Workforce Planning Must Be Strengthened Chapter 3 of the report highlights a growing recognition of the importance of workforce planning in project management, people-competence management, and companies’ strategic planning. At the same time, we identify a gap: proactive workforce planning for installation work – both in terms of competence management and strategic planning – is relatively missing compared to maintenance sector.
Country Insights Show Common Workforce Themes Across Diverse Markets
Developers currently only consider workforce preparedness at a minimal viable level. This leaves substantial untapped value, including improved risk mitigation and more efficient resource allocation, that could be unlocked through more robust workforce planning. As project volumes continue to grow, the potential benefits of enhanced workforce planning will become even more impactful. Workforce Readiness Underpins a Just and Socially Resilient Transition Chapter 4 highlights the macro context of the energy transition, in which wind energy is positioned as both a driver of decarbonisation and a source of high-quality employment. Workforce preparedness contributes to economic resilience, supports regional development, and offers new technical career pathways – including for workers transitioning from fossil-based sectors. Ensuring equitable access to training, strengthening safety cultures, and offering durable employment opportunities will remain essential components of a just transition.
Despite their differences, common themes emerge: technician availability, training capacity, and retention are core challenges across all focus markets. Although many of these countries have outlined offshore wind development plans, substantial progress is not expected until after 2030. To provide a more comprehensive and objective perspective, this chapter extends workforce forecasts through 2030-2035, delivering a long- term outlook on demand across both onshore and offshore sectors. Detailed projections are presented in the dedicated section for each country. A Clear Call to Action The findings of this Outlook reaffirm that workforce readiness must be elevated to the same priority level as supply- chain investment, permitting reform, and grid development. Achieving 2030 wind deployment goals will require coordinated, strategic investment in technician training, certification, and long-term retention.
The six countries examined in this edition – United States, India, Brazil, Germany, France, and Australia – represent a wide range of market conditions. Each faces distinct workforce challenges: • USA: rapid onshore growth and the emergence (albeit uncertain) of offshore wind increase demand across both C&I and O&M. • India: deployment growth requires major scaling of training infrastructure. • Brazil: strong O&M demand and a need for upskilling in line with turbine modernisation. • Germany and France: mature markets with ageing workforces and growing O&M loads. • Australia: fast-growing onshore markets with significant shortages in electrical and mechanical skills, plus
a long term offshore pipeline with considerable planning demands.
8
Chapter 1: Executive Summary
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs