The South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) has launched a campaign to highlight the role that the wind energy industry plays as an employer as South Africa’s Energy Action Plan gains momentum to deliver new power generation and steer the country’s accelerated energy transition.
“We are launching the campaign ‘I Work In Wind’ to showcase people across this industry who are already employed to tell their personal stories, really inspiring the next generation of wind energy professionals and encouraging more participation in the sector,” explains SAWEA CEO Niveshen Govender.
SAWEA believes that while there is general awareness around the wind sector’s successful delivery of clean power to the grid, the employment impact, both directly and indirectly, is a lesser known fact.
Beyond construction, labour and technical capabilities, the skills required in the wind sector include a vast number of supportive roles, such as legal and financial services, social scientists and environmental and climate scientists.
SAWEA points out that, towards the end of 2022, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe highlighted wind as the deliverer of jobs when he reported that the 32 publicly-procured wind energy projects have already created over 32 000 job opportunities in South Africa.
The wind industry, however, says this is vastly underestimated and reported, as it only takes into account the direct jobs and not the thousands more created in supporting sectors.
“Our industry does not only support engineers and technical specialists that can work within the development, construction and the operations of wind projects.
“We estimate that a significant portion of jobs are realised in services, academic and other supportive roles like social workers, climate scientists and of course small, medium and micro enterprises that rely on the wind industry to keep their doors open,” says Govender.