Workforce Readiness as a Critical Enabler of Global Wind Energy Expansion
1
As global wind energy capacity accelerates toward unprecedented growth, the industry faces a challenge that extends beyond turbines, grids, and permitting frameworks. The availability of a skilled and adequately prepared workforce is emerging as a decisive factor in whether projected deployment targets can be met on time.
According to the Global Wind Workforce Outlook 2025–2030, a joint report by the Global Wind Organisation (GWO) and the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), the global wind sector will require approximately 628,000 technicians by 2030 to support construction, installation, and ongoing operations. This demand reflects an anticipated 87% increase in global wind capacity over the next five years and represents a workforce expansion of roughly 50% compared with today.
A Time-Intensive Bottleneck
Developing a qualified wind energy workforce is not an immediate process. Training, certification, on-the-job experience, and long-term retention can collectively take up to a decade, particularly for safety-critical roles within the Construction & Installation (C&I) and Operations & Maintenance (O&M) segments.
The report estimates that by 2025 alone, demand will reach around 475,000 technicians. Given the long lead times required to build workforce capacity, delays in training and deployment risk creating persistent labour shortages. In practice, this could result in:
constrained installation capacity
increased competition for experienced technicians
reliance on under-qualified personnel
schedule delays for wind projects
Elevating Workforce Planning to Strategic Priority
Jakob Lau Holst, CEO of GWO, emphasises that workforce readiness has historically been underrepresented in energy transition planning. He argues that resilient wind supply chains depend not only on manufacturing and logistics, but also on locally available, properly trained personnel.
The report calls for closer collaboration between governments and industry to:
map current and future workforce needs
invest in training infrastructure and instructor capacity
support knowledge transfer and safety standards
provide clear visibility of career pathways within the sector
For prospective workers, transparency around roles and requirements is essential. For the industry, clarity enables more reliable project delivery.
Meeting Demand in a New Era of Wind Energy
GWEC CEO Ben Backwell highlights that the global wind sector is approaching a significant milestone: two terawatts of installed capacity worldwide. Achieving national and regional targets for 2030 will require not only accelerated deployment, but also a new generation of skilled professionals capable of supporting both onshore and offshore projects.
He stresses that coordinated action between policymakers and industry stakeholders will be central to addressing workforce shortages and ensuring that installation capacity scales in parallel with ambition.
Education, Standards, and Access
From an industry perspective, the challenge extends beyond increasing training volumes. Matt Riding, Chief Commercial Officer of Atlas NextWave, notes that competence frameworks must evolve to cover a broader range of roles, while entry pathways into the sector must become faster and more accessible—particularly in high-growth regions where training infrastructure remains limited.
This includes:
modernising competency standards
reducing barriers to entry for new technicians
aligning education with real-world operational needs
National Perspectives and Local Solutions
The Outlook provides in-depth workforce assessments for six priority markets: Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, and the United States. While market conditions differ, the findings consistently point to three shared priorities:
addressing technician shortages
expanding training capacity
improving workforce retention
Strengthening local labour markets is presented as essential to meeting national deployment goals and building long-term resilience.
A Conservative Estimate of Total Workforce Demand
It is important to note that the report focuses exclusively on C&I and O&M roles. Workforce requirements in other critical areas—such as research and development, manufacturing, procurement, logistics, and decommissioning—are not included. As a result, the total workforce required to support net-zero objectives is likely significantly higher than current projections suggest.
Conclusion
The next phase of global wind energy growth will be defined not only by technological capability or investment levels, but by the industry’s ability to develop and sustain a skilled workforce. Without immediate and coordinated action on training and workforce planning, the pace of deployment risks falling behind ambition.
Ensuring workforce readiness is no longer a secondary consideration—it is a foundational requirement for delivering the full potential of wind energy worldwide.