Big news recently for offshore wind energy in New York! Congratulations to Equinor and BP on awards of over 2.4 GW in power and to the Port of Albany for becoming America's first turbine tower manufacturing site to support this new industry. And thanks to the Legislature, Governor Cuomo, and NYSERDA for their hard work and leadership. Offshore wind is gaining significant momentum, but much work remains to be done to prepare New York’s workforce to support this new and exciting industry.
Offshore wind energy will bring thousands of jobs to New York and the Northeast. Although recent news has focused on the downstate area, offshore wind has the potential to impact job growth statewide in sectors like manufacturing, engineering services, scientific consulting, training, and materials research. WDI has been researching and supporting this industry for over a decade, and we are currently in the midst of updating our 2017 study of jobs, skills, and training needs/gaps for the major development phases associated with this new energy sector.
As a reminder, we have also begun to inventory training and education programs (including those not explicitly for offshore wind, but that could still serve as resources) and are mapping their locations as a way to provide a tool for those planning to make investments to meet the needs of the industry. An interactive map developed by WDI includes both lease areas and ports, and will be updated with additions over time. In the near future, we will be linking this map with individual course offerings on WDI’s Future Skills Exchange (FSX) platform, so if you are a training provider and have courses that are related to offshore wind, please submit details to FSX and we will add your institution/courses to the map. (Please include the tag of “Offshore Wind” in the descriptor.)
We look forward to continuing our work with unions, businesses, government, and developers to ensure the new sector’s jobs offer equitable access, good pay, quality training, and advancement opportunities.
