Governor Dan McKee, U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, U.S. Representative Seth Magaziner, and Providence Mayor Brett P. Smiley joined Ørsted and Eversource and other local leaders at the developers’ ProvPort offshore wind construction hub to celebrate the launch of Revolution Wind’s advanced foundation components construction and the completion of South Fork Wind’s components.
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The work underway at ProvPort alone represents a more than $100 million investment by Ørsted and Eversource in the Ocean State the largest offshore wind supply chain investment yet in Rhode Island with local union labor leading this important effort.
“Rhode Island is a national leader in offshore wind, and today marks a significant moment as our state continues to capitalize on one of our state’s most abundant natural resources,†said Governor McKee.
“In addition to assisting us in meeting our emissions reductions target in the Act on Climate, the work underway will also create more jobs, making Rhode Island an economic hub for clean energy.â€
“This is another big step forward for Rhode Island’s offshore wind industry and the blue economy. The drive toward a cleaner energy future is fueling investment, job growth, and economic development in the Ocean State,†said U.S. Senator Jack Reed, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee who helped jumpstart Rhode Island’s offshore wind industry with a federal earmark that assisted with the siting of the Block Island Wind Farm.
“I am glad to see Ørsted and Eversource’s significant investments at work here in Rhode Island creating good paying, high skilled local jobs and workforce training opportunities, shoring up port infrastructure, and supporting our shipbuilders.â€
Ørsted and Eversource are leading the buildout of a homegrown American offshore wind industry.
This busy construction hub is growing Rhode Island’s thriving blue economy, with the creation of more than 125 local jobs for skilled tradespeople supporting the buildout of Ørsted and Eversource’s Northeast offshore wind farms.
General contractor Riggs Distler & Company is helming the work at the 288 foot long ProvPort assembly hall. In the coming weeks, crews will begin loadout of components for South Fork Wind, on track to become America’s first completed utility scale offshore wind farm.
Ørsted and Eversource in 2022 signed the National Offshore Wind Agreement with North America’s Building Trades Unions, the labor organization representing more than three million skilled craft professionals.
The partnership includes 15 International Union Presidents and their local affiliates and sets the bar for working conditions and equity, injects hundreds of millions of dollars in middle class wages into the American economy, creates apprenticeship and career opportunities for communities most impacted by environmental injustice, and ensures projects will be built with the safest and best trained workers in America.
In accordance with Ørsted and Eversource’s national labor agreement, Riggs Distler reached a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) with the Rhode Island building and construction trades to ensure this work would be completed by local union labor.
The construction of the assembly hall itself, led by general contractor Dimeo Construction, was also covered by a PLA and created an additional 40 local union jobs.
Revolution Wind, Rhode Island and Connecticut’s first utility scale offshore wind farm, will create thousands of direct, indirect and induced jobs, as well as dozens of permanent operations and maintenance jobs across both states.
Once complete, the 704 megawatt Revolution Wind will deliver 400 megawatts of clean, affordable offshore wind power to nearly 200,000 Rhode Island homes.
Work to install the project’s onshore, underground transmission system is expected to begin this year. The project is expected to be operational in 2025. ■