By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff
The offshore wind industry is
investing in local jobs and students through a $4.5 million gift to support
education for high-school and college students.
Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind and
Eversource, the Boston-based utility and wind developer, recently pledged $3.5
million to the University of Rhode Island to support renewable-energy research
and job training for undergraduates and graduate students.
Part of the money will support URI’s
Energy Fellows Program, which prepares
undergrad and grad students for entry- and mid-level jobs at companies such as
National Grid, RISE Engineering, and Green Development LLC, the North
Kingstown-based builder of land-based wind turbines and solar facilities.
Mary Colbert, a 2017 URI graduate,
turned her Energy Fellows internship at Ørsted into a full-time job as a
permitting analyst at the company’s downtown office.
“I’m working for a company that’s leading the offshore wind industry from right here in Rhode Island,” said Colbert, one of several former and current students from the energy program who attended the April 22 press event.
According to the Office of Energy Resources, Rhode Island has
an estimated 16,000 jobs in the green energy sector, growing 72 percent since
2014. Some 60 percent of the jobs are in energy efficiency and 13 percent are
in renewable energy.
Nationwide, 3.26 million workers are
employed in the green energy sector, an increase of 4 percent in 2018,
according to a new report.
Ørsted expects to hire 800
construction workers and create 50 permanent jobs with the building of the
400-megawatt Revolution Wind project planned for federal waters between Rhode
Island and Massachusetts.
URI president David Dooley said the
money will fund training, mentoring, and experiential learning opportunities
for students from high school to the Ph.D. level.
“So that they can be involved and
they can be prepared to lead going into the future,” he said.
The students will also be conducting
research related to the siting of offshore wind turbines.
Dooley gave his word that the
research will focus on protecting marine habitat and supporting the fishing
industry, as it did through the development of the state’s acclaimed offshore
wind development guide, the Ocean Special Area Management Plan.
“I can assure you, our researchers
have the highest regard for doing things objectively, to say what the data say
and don’t say,” Dooley said.
Energy storage will be a future area
of study.
“That’s going to be a critical
component of all of this kind of work, because at the end of the day you are
going to have to interface with what we are doing with these kinds of renewable
energy sources into the grid. And energy-storage solutions are going to be a
critically important part of that,” Dooley said.
Another $1.5 million will pay for
local job training, such as the Wind-Win RI
certification program for unemployed and first-time workers.
It also funds the engineering and marine safety program at North Kingstown High School. The certification includes boat licenses and a ropes training program working with tall equipment such as wind turbines.
It also funds the engineering and marine safety program at North Kingstown High School. The certification includes boat licenses and a ropes training program working with tall equipment such as wind turbines.
The program, managed by the North
Kingstown Chamber of Commerce, was honored by Fast Company magazine as a World Changing Idea.
As part of the state’s
renewable-energy training, URI is scheduled to host the Kid
Wind Project teacher training program this summer.