An estimated 8500 jobs in operations & maintenance, 2000 in education and research & development, 4000 in turbine installations and 12000 jobs in local manufacturing will be needed by 2030, says the SA Wind Energy Centre (Sawec) at Stellenbosch University.

CSIR group research leader Stefan Szewczuk told the Windaba conference last month that 55000 direct and indirect jobs could be created for an 1800MW wind allocation in a future energy mix if locally made blades and concrete towers were used.

But Sawec’s Prof Wikus van Niekerk says no-one is training technical staff to take up these opportunities . An annual average of 418 wind energy engineers, 610 technicians and 759 skilled workers need to be trained, he says. SA needs 52 wind engineers this year alone and will have to import skills .

Financial Mail