Stark white walls, blank computer screens and empty desk chairs weren’t what the executives at Denmark-based wind-energy firm Orsted had in mind when they touted the opening of its U.S. innovation center in Providence earlier this year.
The ultimate goal was to create a bustling, collaborative hub of wind-energy companies getting in on the ground floor of the country’s fledgling offshore wind sector.
But while Orsted’s office in the Cambridge Innovation Center has sat unoccupied since the coronavirus pandemic arrived in March, the company’s efforts to establish Rhode Island as a national leader in the industry have not stopped, according to Matthew Morrissey, head of Northeast markets for Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind Power.
While the pandemic has dealt a crushing blow to many industries, the offshore wind sector has gotten some long-awaited clarity, thanks to a preliminary federal review of the first utility-scale wind farm, known as Vineyard Wind, proposed off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.
“The Vineyard Wind project is the cork in the dam,” said Chris Waterson, general manager of Waterson Terminal Services LLC, which operates the Providence seaport on behalf of nonprofit owner ProvPort Inc. “Once that moves, everything kind of flows through behind it.”
That includes Orsted’s Revolution Wind project, a 50-turbine project planned jointly with Boston-based Eversource Energy off the coast of Rhode Island. The project’s construction will create some 2,700 jobs in construction, architecture, carpentry and other related industries and add $282 million to the state’s gross domestic product, according to a 2019 economic analysis. Once it begins generating power, the project will provide about 86 full-time jobs and an annual $8.1 million boost to the state’s GDP, according to the report.
Orsted in March submitted project plans for Revolution Wind to the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, setting off a review and public comment period before the agency issues its final decision. The company also recently completed renovations to its 50-person Exchange Terrace offices in Providence – separate from the innovation hub – with plans to hire another 25 people to work on permitting and project development of five offshore wind farms on the drawing boards, including the Revolution Wind project, Morrissey said.
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LARGE SCALE: Matthew Morrissey, head of Northeast markets for Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind Power, stands in the company’s office in Providence in March. Orsted employees have vacated the office because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but plans for offshore wind projects are still progressing. / PBN FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
MILESTONE REACHED
The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which serves as the primary review and regulatory agency for offshore wind farms, has been the major clog in the pipeline to progress.
How much the delays are rooted in politics is unclear. President Donald Trump has publicly denounced wind energy, but the need for further reviews of the environmental impacts are valid, said Francis Pullaro, executive director for RENEW Northeast, a nonprofit association that advocates for renewable energy.
“We have no reason to question their sincerity,” he said of federal administrators’ calls for additional study.
As the first utility-scale project set to launch in federal waters, the 84-turbine Vineyard Wind bore the brunt of the delays, which in turn put federal investment tax credits at risk. But after a year of delays, the bureau released a preliminary analysis in early June in which it concluded the project would have mostly “negligible” and “minor” impacts on two dozen factors, such as native wildlife species, sediment, air traffic control and tourism.
That analysis marks an “incredibly significant” milestone for the project, as well as the many others lined up behind it, according to Rachel Pachter, chief development officer for New Bedford-based Vineyard Wind LLC. And with overwhelmingly positive responses in the public comment period, Pachter was optimistic for the green light when the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issues its verdict this fall.
“These types of approvals are the exact signal people need to continue,” Pachter said.
Morrissey agreed.
“Any opportunity where a federal agency is giving a project clarity is setting a positive precedent,” he said.
That precedent not only gives hope to developers of the 16 proposed wind farms along the Eastern Seaboard with signed lease agreements through the government, it also is the kind of reassurance private investors, state leaders and the many ancillary companies that will support the sprawling wind farms need to proceed with their own plans.
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BUILDING PHASE: One of the five Block Island Wind Farm turbines under construction in 2016. Project owner Deepwater Wind LLC has since been acquired by Denmark-based Orsted, which has proposed erecting a 50-turbine farm called Revolution Wind off the Rhode Island coast. / COURTESY ORSTED U.S. OFFSHORE WIND[/caption]
A March 2020 study published by the American Wind Energy Association projected that creating 14,000 megawatts of offshore wind power projects in the next five years would generate 45,000 jobs across 74 occupations, including electricians, welders and vessel operators, and $14.2 billion in annual economic output. By 2030, those benchmarks would double, the study stated.
Hilary Fagan, vice president of business development for R.I. Commerce Corp., anticipates a surge in activity in the state’s offshore wind industry if the Vineyard Wind project is approved – both from existing Rhode Island companies pivoting operations, as well as new businesses entering the state.
R.I. Commerce has been credited with luring several global offshore wind companies to Providence, securing agreements with two British wind turbine maintenance companies – Boston Energy Wind Power Services Inc. and GEV Wind Power US LLC – to create a combined 177 new jobs in the state by 2023. The deals are part of $2.8 million awarded through the state’s Qualified Jobs Incentive Tax Credit.
GEV recently expanded its presence in the Cambridge Innovation Center, adding room for another three people in addition to the three already there, according to Daniel Boon, GEV vice president. The bulk of the 123 jobs promised will come once the company finishes a 10,000-square-foot training facility in the Quonset Business Park, intended to teach technicians basic turbine safety and maintenance. While finalizing a lease was delayed due to travel restrictions caused by the pandemic, Boon is confident in the company’s ability to finish the facility and bring on the 100-plus wind turbine technicians to train there.
Boon recalled how the small English town of Grimsby where he grew up transformed from a fishing community to a hub for the offshore wind energy sector, with dozens of major projects and new business for hotels, restaurants and other industries.
He envisions that transformation replicated in Rhode Island thanks to a growing number of industry experts setting up local offices, as well as its ties to the first – and, for now, only – offshore wind farm off Block Island.
That most of the half-dozen wind energy-related companies in the Cambridge Innovation Center have not returned since the state’s stay-at-home order was lifted is not of concern to Stephen White, principal of Glosten Inc., a Seattle naval architecture and marine engineering firm that opened a Providence office there last year.
“At the end of the day, it’s not going to change the result,” he said of working physically in the same space. “Somebody [in the wind energy industry] is going to need the knowledge we have. We’re eventually going to find each other.”
PREPPING PORTS
Efforts to add to the state’s growing collection of wind industry giants, as well as smaller players, have not stopped despite the tumultuous economic climate, Fagan said.
To that end, R.I. Commerce recently approved $15 million in tax credits through the Rebuild Rhode Island program to a developer planning to create a marine terminal on land along the East Providence waterfront. The South Quay Marine Terminal, part of a sprawling 45-acre site off Veterans Memorial Parkway, will be transformed into a port designed for heavy lifting – ideal for offloading components of the massive turbines and other equipment, said Michael Donegan, the attorney representing developer RI Waterfront Enterprises LLC.
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ON THE WATERFRONT: RI Waterfront Enterprises LLC has received approval for $15 million in tax credits from the R.I. Commerce Corp. to redevelop the South Quay Marine Terminal in East Providence, pictured, into a site that is capable of offloading wind turbines and other equipment used to build offshore wind developments. / COURTESY RI WATERFRONT ENTERPRISES LLC[/caption]
The estimated $103 million project will be completed by 2022, with construction creating 650 jobs, as well as a one-time $69 million bump in state GDP and $2.6 million in tax revenue, according to the application with R.I. Commerce. Once completed, the project will provide 21 jobs, contributing $2.5 million to annual state GDP and $95,000 in state tax revenues.
Since serving as the staging and preassembly base for the Block Island Wind Farm, the Providence port – across the river from the South Quay Marine Terminal – has forged ahead with $20 million in land and infrastructure investments aimed in part at supporting the pipeline of offshore wind projects, said Waterson.
It’s unclear whether ProvPort has lined up agreements with Revolution Wind or Vineyard Wind; parties involved all declined to comment when asked, although Orsted has committed $40 million in investments to ProvPort and Port of Davisville at Quonset in North Kingstown.
But Waterson isn’t worried. Even with major, multimillion-dollar investments in ports in New York, New Jersey and nearby New Bedford, there is still not enough infrastructure to support the 21,000 megawatts of Atlantic Ocean wind farms under lease in federal waters.
“I see pretty much every port available being used in some form to service these projects,” he said.
In addition to Quonset, Providence and New Bedford, public and privately owned pier space in Fall River and Somerset have attracted attention from offshore wind developers, with several studies underway to consider redevelopment to accommodate wind farm projects, The Herald News has reported.
Federal project approvals will set off the next set of investments and upgrades under the Providence port’s five-year capital plan. But the delays have, in some sense, been beneficial, giving the port more time to prepare for the anticipated surge in offshore wind projects, Waterson said.
Steven J. King, managing director for Quonset Development Corp., which operates Quonset Business Park and the Port of Davisville, said the extra time has helped.
“There was a point where the projects were racing forward pretty quickly and we would not have had time to build out the infrastructure we need,” King said.
Just last month, Gov. Gina M. Raimondo unveiled a proposal to seek $310.5 million in bond issues that would include $56.5 million for restoring industrial properties and for site preparation for offshore wind development. The Port of Davisville would also receive $31 million.
The proposed bond issues would need to be placed on the November ballot by the General Assembly.
Developing the state’s offshore wind sector remains a “top priority” both economically and environmentally in tandem with the governor’s goal of generating enough renewable energy to power the entire state by 2030, including 1,000 megawatts by 2020, according to Raimondo spokeswoman Audrey Lucas.
The 400 megawatts expected from Revolution Wind are crucial to hitting that 2020 target – which stood at 920 megawatts in projects finished or under contract as of the second quarter of 2020 – according to Christopher Kearns, interdepartmental project manager for the R.I. Office of Energy Resources. Kearns stressed the importance of striking a balance between speed and thorough state and federal review in developing the offshore wind industry, noting the environmental consequences if the projects are not carefully planned and examined.
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UNCONCERNED: Stephen White, principal for Glosten Inc., a naval architecture and marine engineering firm based in Seattle with an office in the Cambridge Innovation Center in Providence, believes the half-dozen wind energy-related companies that have offices in the CIC will continue to get the job done whether employees work from home or in the office. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
SLOW OR GO?
Unlike the wind farm developers who describe the federal permitting process as slow and laden with red tape, Fred Mattera, executive director for the Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island, says the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s review of Vineyard Wind lacked the time and detail needed to really understand how the project might impact fish and, in turn, the commercial fishermen who rely on them.
Mattera fears it might already be too late; the process allows developers to begin geophysical and geotechnical work before conducting research, and that work can drive away the squid and other species sensitive to noise and acoustic changes. Fewer fish could have a devastating economic impact on the state’s fisheries and seafood industry, which was responsible for nearly 4,400 jobs and $420 million in direct and indirect economic impact in 2016, according to a University of Rhode Island study.
Safety also concerns Mattera, who says the 1-mile-wide transit lanes allocated for traveling around the turbines are not wide enough, particularly in high winds and storms when visibility is low.
“There’s going to be loss of life and loss of vessels,” he said. “The problem is, the people who are making decisions haven’t gone out to sea.”
Vineyard Wind seems poised to claim the title of “first” utility-scale offshore wind project, but Revolution Wind may not be far behind; the project remains on schedule to start delivering power by 2023, Morrissey said.
In the race to get turbines spinning in federal waters, Rhode Island also has several unique advantages, including expertise from the Block Island Wind Farm, a deep pool of talent through renowned college and university programs, and proximity to the federally designated offshore development area.
“I think the recipe is there, which you can see already from the incredible response of the global community to consider Rhode Island,” Fagan said.
Whose turbines go up first may not matter, at least not in the same way it did several years ago. Aging fossil-fuel plants and increased attention on climate change ups the ante for clean alternatives, with demand for offshore wind power expected to exceed even the current pipeline of projects, Morrissey said.
And as the state scrambles for solutions to jump-start a struggling economy, the offshore wind industry could be an answer.
“This is really a tremendous opportunity for offshore wind to be a very strong foundational pillar of the post-COVID economic recovery,” said Morrissey.
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Lavin@PBN.com.
