Women In Operation and Maintenance In the Wind Energy Industry

When you work in the AI and IoT sectors, develop algorithms and train the models daily, it is extremely important to remember that human beings are what really matter. Our ultimate goal at ANNEA would be, not only having “healthy” wind turbines and provide the best-in-class predictions. But optimizing operations and making the work environment more inviting for all to enter the industry. That is why, we believe women in the wind energy industry increases the diversity we have.

Diversity is one of the key values at ANNEA and we try to keep an eye on how the renewable energy sector is developing in this direction. During the last few months, we were lucky to have Khashiya Adegbite in the ANNEA marketing team and we were happy to support her research on the topic “Women in the wind energy” as a part of her internship program. She reached out to women who work in the wind energy industry in the Operations & Maintenance sector, asking about their challenges, work-life balance and their perspective on the future development of the market. Khashiya published an interview with Arancha Leiros who works in Operation and Maintenance for wind turbines.

Insights About Women in the Wind Energy Industry

Arancha gave us very insightful and in-depth replies about her role and women in wind energy. In her research Khashiya, looked up a variety of women in the wind energy sector whilst focusing on technicians in the industry. Selected several candidates to interview and contacted them by email and LinkedIn with this she was able to contact a few and discuss the industry and how it affects them in their role at hand. This gave her an insight into their challenging roles and passions, along with site her research into statistics she interviewed with Arancha Leiros. You can read Khashiya’s article and the interview HERE.

According to a report by IRENA and the Women in Wind Global Leadership Program, today women represent 21% of the wind workforce globally and only 8% of the senior management roles in the wind energy sector. It is almost the same percentage as in the oil and gas industry but is significantly less than in the renewable energy sector.

The Initiatives

Today there are a few initiatives designed to accelerate the female workforce in the wind energy sector and encourage them towards leadership positions. One of the most celebrated and successful initiatives is Women in Wind Global Leadership Programme designed by The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) and the Global Women’s Network for the Energy Transition (GWNET)

We hope that the number of successful careers of women in the wind energy will grow together with the market and there will be more great female wind energy professionals as Arancha Leiros in the future.