Working in wind campaign to shine light on depth and impact of reemployment

As the country’s Energy Action Plan takes centre stage to deliver new power generation and steer the country’s accelerated energy transition, SAWEA has launched a campaign to highlight the role that the industry plays as an employer. The Association believes that whilst there is general awareness around the wind sector’s successful delivery of clean power to the grid, few are aware of the employment impact, both directly and indirectly.

Beyond construction, labour and technical capabilities, skills required in the wind sector include a vast number of supportive roles such as legal and financial services, social scientists, environmental and climate scientists.

“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” explained Niveshen Govender, CEO of SAWEA.

Late last year, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy Minister, Gwede Mantashe, highlighted wind as deliverer of jobs when he reported that the 32 publicly procured wind energy projects have already created over 32 000 job opportunities for the country.

The wind industry, however says that 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 doesn’t 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 SMME’s that rely on the wind industry to keep their doors open,” added Govender.