From the Guardian:

“Many within the UK’s declining oil industry are looking to the renewable energy boom to future-proof their careers and be a part of something bigger than any one project or company.

“Matt Wooltorton, 38, from East Anglia, joined Scottish Power to work on the East Anglia offshore windfarm in 2016 after years in the North Sea oil and gas business.

“I have colleagues who I used to work with who would definitely like to transition from oil and gas into renewables. These windfarms are built to last for 25 years, so those are really long-term jobs being created. You could really see the opportunities emerging where I live on the east coast of England, and it’s exciting because there’s a wake of opportunity that comes behind these projects for businesses in maintenance work,” he says.

“There are people, often contractors, who come on to these projects for the money but you often find that a lot do end up wanting to stick around. There’s a real sense of doing something worthwhile.”

You win some, you lose some:

“The government hailed offshore wind as “a British success story” only weeks before the coronavirus lockdown descended on the UK. Since then record levels of wind power generation contributed to renewables meeting almost 50% of the UK’s electricity needs in the first three months of this year, driving coal-fired electricity to lows not seen since the first power plants began generating in the industrial revolution.”

And it’s not over yet:

“The growth in renewable energy has accelerated in line with fast-falling costs, kickstarting an industry that in 2018 contributed turnover of more than £46bn to the UK economy and employed almost a quarter of a million people.

“The most startling collapse in cost can be seen in UK waters, where the next generation of offshore windfarms is due to be built for less than a third of the cost to energy bills of their early predecessors. Onshore wind turbines and solar farms are now so cheap they can be built without any subsidy at all.”

The Brits are really going for it. From coal in the Industrial Revolution to massive offshore windfarms today, they’ve certainly got a way with energy sources.

Amusingly, some of the press or the “press” in the UK has become rather obsessed with another energy source: the hot air coming out of Boris Johnson’s mouth as he deflects coronavirus deaths with talk of wind turbines.

[Cover photo of Courtney Doughty who does maintenance on Norfolk’s offshore wind turbines. Photographed by Patrick Harrison.]