The burgeoning U.S. offshore wind farm business will be the greatest opportunity for our maritime industry since WWII.

Over the next 10 years the offshore wind farm business is projected to install approximately 1,300 towers in 18 fields, generating more than 17 GW of power.

By 2035, the U.S. is expected to have 35 GW installed, which is more than the total global offshore wind farm output built to date.

To make all the plans and billions of dollars already invested a reality will require thousands of new American jobs in the U.S. maritime sectors. Skilled shipyard labor will be needed to build the multitude of new vessels needed to transport equipment, lay the cable and connect the grids. The new ships will require hundreds if not thousands of U.S mariners to operate the equipment.  There will be hundreds of new jobs to maintain the equipment and grids, and finally there will be new jobs needed in our ports to load and unload offshore wind farm equipment both for installation and maintenance.

Last year, the European offshore wind farm industry employed thousands of men and women in all aspects the business to install and commission over 500 hundred new towers. By comparison, the U.S. has installed only seven towers over the last four years.

Regrettably, the American installations largely avoided the use of American labor. In fact, other countries are seeing similar employment issues.  According to The Herald (February 17, 2020), Scotland had estimated that 28,000 Scottish jobs would be created from the offshore wind farm industry by 2020.  In reality, Scotland has realized 1,700 jobs.  Unless we prioritize American jobs, the job creation will not occur for our citizens.

While the first U.S. demonstration projects are not substantial in terms of energy production, the lengths to which the Europeans had to go to get the job done is striking in both Block Island and off the coast of Virginia. For instance on the recently-installed Virginia project, instead of landing parts at Norfolk, which would have been the closest port – only 27 nautical miles away from the offshore wind farm site — Ørsted, the foreign developer, had to land the parts at Halifax, nearly 900 nautical miles (and a nearly 4 day one-way trip) away and then shuttle the towers and components to Virginia. The same goes for the Block Island project. Instead of landing parts in Boston or New Bedford, the majority of the 5 towers transited from England on a foreign jack up rig, which is really expensive and not a sustainable way to build out larger offshore wind farms.

Importantly, in both cases, the vast majority of each project was carried out by foreign labor.

The solution

We can and have to change this labor paradigm. We must develop the Jones Act assets needed to utilize the plethora of east coast ports such as Boston, New Bedford, Quonset, New London, New York, Camden and Norfolk to name a few, that are near the offshore wind farm lease areas.

At Green Shipping Line, we have a tried and true solution to the problem. We have developed a feedering method that will allow for foreign parts to be landed up and down the coast near the offshore wind farm sites and then in full compliance with the Jones Act, transferred to a foreign offshore jack up rig for direct installation.

If our method and vessels are used, U.S. citizens or permanent residents will build our vessels in full compliance with the Jones Act; U.S. citizens or permanent residents will unload the foreign equipment in our ports and reload the components on our vessels; finally, U.S. citizens or permanent residents mariners will sail our feeders to the installation sites. With this model we will create approximately 2,200 jobs annually in the U.S., directly/indirectly for vessel build & operation.

The economy will flourish, our Country’s people will thrive, and our infrastructure will once again be the best in the world. Join us!