SUN, WIND & WATER
The Promise of Offshore Wind
We can create good jobs and clean, cheap power by bringing back production as well as accelerating installation. WIND FARMS IN 42 states provided about 7 percent of U.S. power needs in 2019, a figure that is expected to grow. But offshore wind is the exciting growth area for technology and jobs, as well as renewable energy. The East Coast’s geography, in particular, is ideal for offshore wind energy: The ocean is shallow enough for anchored turbine towers; and because so many people live near the coast, offshore wind energy could be an easier way to bring an energy source closer to where demand is greatest. According to Mike Fishman, president and executive director of the Climate Jobs National Resource Center, “We see this as kind of the inflection point for the whole system and paradigm from oil and gas to renewables. And on the East Coast, there’s going to be a massive amount of offshore wind. Probably we’ll see 2,000 to 4,000 towers being built over the next 10 or 20 years.” The United States has the potential to harness more than 2,000 gigawatts of energy from offshore wind, according to the Global Offshore Wind Report. The Department of Energy estimates that East Coast offshore has the potential to provide about 35 percent of power needs for the entire country by 2050. But that will require supportive policies and a politics to match. Rhode Island was the first state, in 2016, to install its five turbines off about 16 miles of coastline near Block Island. The 30-megawatt project supplies more than enough energy to the 1,000 year-round residents on the island and even sends some energy to the rest of the state when there are surpluses. While the project did at first meet some resistance from local residents who weren’t keen on the aesthetics of the
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windmills on their coastline, the commitment from the state government in partnership with the local electrical and steel workers unions prevailed. Virginia quickly followed with the country’s second offshore wind farm. But the boldest visions for offshore wind have come from New York state and New Jersey, where the political clout of unions has even inspired other states to retroactively add better prevailing-wage standards to their offshore wind projects. New York state’s windmill plan will depend on the installation and maintenance of hundreds of wind turbines, many of which will be around New York City and Long Island. The proximity of the wind turbines to the urban center that has the highest demand for energy will be a visual reminder of another benefit of costal wind farms. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a mandate in 2019 to procure nine gigawatts of energy from offshore wind by 2035, of which 4.2 gigawatts has already been contracted. Neighboring New Jersey has a 7.5-gigawatt commitment by 2035 signed into order by Gov. Phil Murphy, and the 1.1-gigawatt project 15 miles into the ocean from Atlantic City should be in operation by 2024. And adding to the Mid-Atlantic interest now are Massachusetts, Maryland, and Connecticut. (Maine is also delving into offshore wind energy, but the oceans are deeper and the state will be using a different kind of floating wind turbine technology.) These projects will also require new investment in ports in the Mid-Atlantic, like at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, in addition to building totally new sites, as in New Bedford, Massachusetts (the first
port built specifically for offshore wind in the U.S.). This backing comes from the state governments, which also sign commitments to buy the energy at an agreed-upon price per kilowatt-hour from the private companies that are contracted to harness the energy and construct the massive windmills. The private companies, some domestic and some European, then become clients of the state government and can ask for certain labor standards, called “project labor agreements,” to be included in the project proposals. Plans from competing companies that want to be involved in this budding sector get ranked on a point system, where more points can be earned for better labor practices. These agreements are a result of strategic union organizing and politicking. “The main goal for us was to get an institutional framework to address the dual crises of income inequality with the creation of good jobs but also helping to address climate change, and we see the two as being interconnected,” says Vinny Alvarez, president of New York City’s Central Labor Council. “And [the objective] continues to be: create good jobs with labor standards along with ongoing effort to help assist with climate change. “Sometimes it’s ensuring labor standards are in the legislation, sometimes it’s in RFPs [requests for proposal] that are going out for work, but it’s always ensuring that wherever the work is being done that the workers have a right to have a voice at work,” Alvarez adds. “We see much of this work [in green energy] going to non-union sectors, typically to low-wage jobs. And we want to make sure that we reverse that trend. We think
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By Brittany Gibson
