The North Sea’s transient workforce could be lost for good unless pace is picked up on the renewable energy transition, an Aberdeen accounting and business advisory specialist has warned.
Mark Brown, partner at MHA – one of the UK’s largest accountancy firms - believes 2025 is pivotal in terms of seeing real momentum gained.
Mark, who is based in the city’s Carden Place, said: “It’s crucial that the transition starts to see real signs of tangible progress in 2025 as there is a high risk of losing experienced personnel if the jobs just aren’t there. If this does not happen quickly enough, we are in danger of losing what is already a very transient workforce.
Mark Brown, partner at MHA
“They will work all over the world as has been seen in previous periods of North Sea downturn. They will go to where the opportunities are, where the money is, particularly the younger workforce whose skills will be key to the energy transition. Once they go abroad, they might never come back.
“We need the industry to remain buoyant enough here in the North Sea to hold on to those workers long enough for the transition into renewables - that’s the key. These plans must now mean something. Action must be taken to attract and secure investment in the immediate years to come.”
In December, energy secretary Ed Miliband set out a plan to boost renewable energy supply in his ‘clean power 2030’ announcement. This included measures to boost the UK’s renewable energy supply such as creating canopies of solar panels over outdoor car parks.
Last week, a new pilot scheme backed by £3.7million in Scottish funding, was launched for oil and gas workers looking to transition into the renewables industry. The Energy Skills Passport will help workers find employment in the offshore wind sector and make it easier for workers to discover which qualifications they need and which career paths are available.
This comes against a backdrop of pivotal happenings across the Atlantic, with this week’s inauguration of returning President Donald Trump. Trump has recently criticised the UK government's energy policy, stating that they should “open up” the ageing North Sea oil and gas basin and get rid of wind farms.
In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump said: “The U.K. is making a very big mistake. Open up the North Sea. Get rid of Windmills!”
Michael Meakin-Blackwell, director, MHA, said while it’s unlikely the UK would accede to Trump’s rhetoric, he questioned how ambitious a 2030 clean power target is against an increased complexity of the work that needs to be undertaken.
Michael Meakin-Blackwell
He said: “Around twice as much new transmission network infrastructure will be needed in the nation’s grid by 2030 as has been built in the past decade. In addition to this, wind turbine generator, solar and battery assets continue to increase in size and therefore technical complexity.
“The plan also highlights the ‘huge opportunity’ for reskilling and transferring skills with over 90% of the UK’s oil and gas workforce possessing skills that have medium to high transferability to the offshore renewables sector. While this may be true and could be a major pull of investors in the North-east of Scotland in particular, a high degree of retraining will be required, adding further skepticism that these targets can be hit.”
Michael said there needs to be confidence in the sector to ensure staff are retained.
He added: “Clean Power 2030 puts a clear plan in place and starts to build confidence that we are looking to move at pace this the transition. One of the key factors which will impact the ability to meet the objectives of Clean Power 2030 will be grid connections.
“According to NESO, there were over 1,700 connection applications in 2024, leaving more projects in the queue than are required for the energy system in 2030 or even 2050 leading to a pause in connection applications from January 29, 2025.”