THE ENERGY INTERVIEW
The technology is moving from demonstration projects toward early commercial scale, and that’ s a profound shift. On the challenge side, supply chain constraints remain serious. The world doesn’ t yet have enough cable manufacturing, installation vessels or port infrastructure to match the permitting ambitions of multiple major markets simultaneously. And workforce availability is a real bottleneck.
The pipeline of trained professionals is not growing as fast as the pipeline of projects. That’ s the problem OWA exists to help solve, but it requires coordinated investment from industry, governments and educators.
Q. DONALD TRUMP RECENTLY PAID TOTALENERGIES US $ 1BN TO SCRAP ITS OFFSHORE WIND PLANS IN THE US. WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ON THIS?
» It’ s a significant setback for the US market in the short term, and I won’ t pretend otherwise.
When a major developer accepts US $ 1bn to walk away from its US offshore wind portfolio, that signals a policy environment where long-term investment confidence has eroded.
That’ s damaging, particularly for communities and supply chain businesses that had organised around those projects. But I think it’ s important to separate the US policy moment from the global trajectory. Offshore wind is not a US story right now. Europe continues to build at scale.
600
The number of wind energy professionals the Academy has trained, across more than 30 countries
30 August 2026