Team Leading State’s First Offshore Wind Farms Plans Major New Investments in Local Jobs, Ports, Shipbuilding and Workforce Training for New Project: Revolution Wind 2

Rhode Island’s offshore wind leaders Ørsted and Eversource today announced they have submitted a joint proposal in response to the state’s offshore wind solicitation. Delivering clean, reliable renewable power for more than 500,000 Rhode Island homes, the proposed 884-megawatt Revolution Wind 2 represents more than $2 billion in direct economic benefits to Rhode Island’s blue and green economies, including the creation of hundreds of local jobs and unprecedented investments in port improvements and shipbuilding.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230313005641/en/

(Photo: Business Wire)

Ørsted and Eversource are leading the buildout of a homegrown American offshore wind industry, and Revolution Wind 2 will further advance the state’s leadership position in this growing green jobs sector. If selected, Revolution Wind 2 will create hundreds of jobs; deliver crucial port investments that expand Rhode Island’s role in the offshore wind industry; advance environmental justice; and create inclusive training and career opportunities for historically marginalized Rhode Islanders.

Together with Ørsted and Eversource’s Revolution Wind – the state’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm – Revolution Wind 2 would help advance the state’s 100-percent clean energy by 2033 climate goal. The carbon emissions achieved by Revolution Wind 2 would be the equivalent of taking more than 265,000 cars off New England roads.

“From the ‘starting five’ at America’s first offshore wind farm to the major work already underway for Revolution Wind, we’re proud to be Rhode Island’s trusted offshore wind partner,” said David Hardy, Group EVP and CEO Americas at Ørsted. “We’re ready to deliver even more good-paying jobs and affordable clean energy to the Ocean State, and we’re confident that our new proposal will advance Rhode Island’s climate goals while delivering on the promise of a sustainable economic engine rooted in thriving port facilities and powered by local union labor.”

“We’re answering Rhode Island’s call for more offshore wind energy with a proposal that builds upon the groundwork we’ve laid in the Ocean State with our significant investments in port infrastructure, workforce training and the local supply chain,” said Joe Nolan, Chairman, President and CEO of Eversource Energy. “Our latest proposal harnesses the unmatched combination of our onshore, regional transmission expertise together with Ørsted’s considerable offshore capabilities. We applaud state leaders for their commitment to combatting climate change and delivering a clean-energy future for Rhode Islanders.”

If selected, Revolution Wind 2 will deliver unprecedented economic and environmental investments in Rhode Island, including:

• Ports:
  • Significant investments in the state’s existing ports, including $35 million to realize Quonset Development Corporation’s vision for a Regional Offshore Wind Logistics and Operations Hub at Quonset Point.
  • New, local union jobs to support the expanded construction of advanced foundation components at ProvPort.
• Shipbuilding:
  • Building on the state’s historic shipbuilding capabilities, Revolution Wind 2 will enable the construction of two new crew transfer vessels in Rhode Island to serve Ørsted’s U.S. portfolio, on top of the five already being built by Blount Boats and Senesco Marine as part of our Revolution Wind investments. We’re also planning other shipbuilding investments in Rhode Island to support the industry.
• Ørsted Offshore Engineering Hub Center of Excellence:
  • Ørsted will open a new U.S. Engineering Hub in Rhode Island, creating roughly 75 new local engineering jobs in a state-of-the-art facility that will serve as an Ørsted engineering center of excellence in the U.S.

Revolution Wind 2 will also make tens of millions of dollars of direct investments to support Rhode Island’s supply chain and supplier diversity, workforce training, education and research, environmental justice and biodiversity, putting Rhode Islanders front and center.

Ørsted and Eversource are developing the 704MW Revolution Wind project and are expected to start construction on the project later this year. Revolution Wind will deliver 400 megawatts of clean, affordable offshore wind power to nearly 200,000 Rhode Island homes. The project is expected to be operational in 2025.

Under Governor McKee’s leadership, Rhode Island is building on its leadership role as home to America’s first offshore wind farm, the Block Island Wind Farm, as well as the state with the most ambitious clean energy target in the nation. Already, Rhode Island has become a leader in developing a homegrown offshore wind supply chain, including a thriving industry hub of nearly 30 companies at Providence CIC, and the state has begun training the future offshore wind workforce. In July 2022, Governor McKee announced Rhode Island’s second competitive offshore wind solicitation. This second solicitation marks additional momentum toward achieving Rhode Island’s 100-percent renewable by 2033 goal and its Act on Climate Act emissions reduction target.

The joint venture between Ørsted, the leading U.S. offshore wind energy partner, and Eversource, New England’s largest energy provider and experts in regional energy transmission, was established in 2016 and together the two companies have invested in building the American offshore wind supply chain and next generation of the nation’s energy workforce. Through its industry-leading National Offshore Wind Agreement, the developers were the first in the U.S. to commit that its offshore construction would be completed by an American union workforce, emphasizing the developers’ commitment to good-paying jobs, workforce training and safety.

As part of Revolution Wind, Ørsted and Eversource have already:

• Established a regional offshore wind foundation component manufacturing facility at ProvPort, where local union workers are today building advanced foundation components for the developers’ South Fork Wind project
• Partnered with two local shipyards – Blount Boats, in Warren, and Senesco Marine, in Quonset Point – to build five new crew-transfer vessels to support their Northeast projects. Construction is underway.
• Invested $1 million to establish a training partnership with the Community College of Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, Rhode Island Commerce, the Rhode Island Building and Construction Trades Council and Building Futures. The partnership will establish the state’s first Global Wind Organization (GWO) training certificate program, at CCRI.
• Signed first-ever U.S. offshore wind helicopter agreement for new crew helicopters, including a $1.8 million investment in Quonset State Airport where the helicopters will be based
• Awarded a contract to Boskalis for the foundation and offshore substations transportation and installation work for Revolution Wind and South Fork Wind , as well as scour protection installation contracts for its Revolution Wind project. The contracts supported the opening of a new Boskalis office located in Providence CIC
• Collaborated with marine services provider Sea Services North America, and its partner fishermen in Rhode Island, to support safe navigation in and around the companies’ Northeast offshore wind farms

About Ørsted

A global clean energy leader, Ørsted develops, constructs, and operates offshore and land-based wind farms, solar farms, energy storage facilities, and bioenergy plants. Ørsted is the first energy company in the world with a science-based net-zero emissions target as validated by the Science Based Targets initiative.

In the United States, the company has approximately 650 employees and a growing portfolio of clean energy assets and partnerships that includes offshore wind energy, land-based wind energy, solar, storage technologies and e-fuels. A leader across the renewable energy sector in the United States, Ørsted holds the top position in offshore wind energy with approximately 5 gigawatts in development and operates America’s first offshore wind farm, located off the coast of Block Island. Ørsted has a total U.S. land-based capacity of 5 gigawatts across wind, solar, storage technologies and e-fuels. To learn more about the Ørsted U.S. business, visit us.orsted.com or follow the company on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (@ØrstedUS).

About Eversource

Eversource (NYSE: ES), celebrated as a national leader for its corporate citizenship, is the #1 energy company in Newsweek’s list of America’s Most Responsible Companies for 2023 and recognized as one of America’s Most JUST Companies. Eversource transmits and delivers electricity and natural gas and supplies water to approximately 4.4 million customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The #1 energy efficiency provider in the nation, Eversource harnesses the commitment of approximately 9,500 employees across three states to build a single, united company around the mission of safely delivering reliable energy and water with superior customer service. The company is empowering a clean energy future in the Northeast, with nationally recognized energy efficiency solutions and successful programs to integrate new clean energy resources like solar, offshore wind, electric vehicles and battery storage, into the electric system. For more information, please visit eversource.com, and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. For more information on our water services, visit aquarionwater.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230313005641/en/