Rhode Island’s Governor Gina Raimondo has announced her Vision for Rhode Island’s Clean Energy Future – a second-term plan to position this US East Coast state as the epicentre of North America’s nascent offshore wind economy.
Once established, Rhode Island’s offshore wind industry will support at least 5,000 good jobs in welding, boat building, oceanography, marine biology and more, Governor Raimondo said.
The plan includes expanding the availability of port access suitable for heavy industrial and construction use at the Port of Providence, Quonset and at additional new locations. Under Raimondo, Rhode Island is already on track to acquire and develop up to 100 new acres of usable port space at Quonset and the Port of Providence with a focus on hosting the staging, component distribution, and other logistical support necessary to foster offshore wind development. In her second term, Raimondo plans to conduct a large-scale economic feasibility analysis of adding new dockage space at sites up and down Narragansett Bay, a statement said.
Later this year, the state’s Department of Labor and Training will begin working with a new Real Jobs Training Partnership focused on implementing a wind energy technology career pathway in collaboration with secondary and post-secondary educational institutions, the Quonset Development Corporation, and local companies vital to the offshore wind supply chain.
In her second term, Raimondo plans to attract USD 100 million in new R&D investment to Rhode Island over the next four years, working with institutions of higher education, existing offshore wind industry leaders, and the entrepreneurial community in the region and nationally to establish Rhode Island as the national hub for offshore wind R&D and tech transfer.
According to the recently released 2018 Rhode Island Clean Energy Industry report, clean energy employment in the Ocean State has grown by a 72 percent since 2014 and has resulted in 6,650 new jobs across the state.
Over 1,000 additional jobs are expected to be created by Deepwater Wind’s Revolution Wind , the state’s first offshore wind project.