UMass will take lead on offshore wind effort with $11.9M center - GazetteNET
Daily Hampshire Gazette - UMass will take lead on offshore wind effort with $11.9M center
UMass will take lead on offshore wind effort with $11.9M center
In this Aug. 15, 2016 file photo, three of Deepwater Wind’s five turbines stand in the water off Block Island, R.I, the nation’s first offshore wind farm. AP FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL DWYER
| Published: 02-12-2024 10:09 AM
Modified: 02-12-2024 1:31 PM |
AMHERST — UMass Amherst will lead a new $11.9 million center on offshore wind education, research and outreach to expedite development of offshore wind energy and train a national workforce to install and maintain the clean energy infrastructure.
Backed by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Academic Center for Reliable and Resilience of Offshore Wind (ARROW) is a five-year effort to design equitable, resilient and reliable offshore wind to meet the Biden administration’s goal of developing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030.
“Massachusetts has really over the past decade proven itself to be a real leader in offshore wind and renewable energy in the government, workforce development and industry side,” said Sanjay Arwade, director of ARROW. “We really feel that for the commonwealth, this university-led center is a really meaningful and big piece of completing the picture of Massachusetts’ leading role in offshore wind nationally.”
Arwade defines reliable and resilient offshore wind as systems that continually produce energy as designed and bounce back quickly from disturbances such as storms and blackouts. He said an equitable offshore wind system distributes the infrastructure burden and benefits of the systems evenly, compared to interstate highway systems that often place more burden on underprivileged communities without as many benefits.
The offshore university-led program has three goals. The first is to establish comprehensive offshore wind training and education in U.S. institutions. This includes various types of educational programs and training, from multidisciplinary summer intensives on offshore wind for both students and academic experts to Massachusetts Clean Energy Extension programs out of UMass.
ARROW also will allow partnering institutions to swap educational resources and improve instruction for an estimated 1,000 students during the first five years of the center.
“Finally, we will connect strongly with something akin to an internship program to allow students to benefit from educational resources at academic institutions but also ground themselves in the practicality of the industry,” Arwade said.
The center will serve as a research hub for offshore wind. Investigations published by the center will focus on the best offshore wind infrastructure under various uncertainties in atmospheric conditions, changing ocean conditions and usage of power.
“All those systems behave in uncertain ways. Our approach is to quantify those uncertainties to allow decision makers to make well-informed decisions based on qualifications of uncertainties associated with the systems,” Arwade said.
Lastly, the center will engage with various stakeholders in the offshore wind industry, from wind energy companies and grid operators to non-profits and insurance companies. Arwade said outreach efforts will ensure all stakeholders have a seat at the table in shaping the next generation of offshore wind and its workforce.
ARROW will collaborate with 40 other academic institutions, national laboratories, two state-level energy offices and other industry-related groups in Massachussetts, Illinois, Maryland, Washington, South Carolina and Puerto Rico, some of which will contribute funding to the center. A majority of the center’s funding comes from the Department of Energy and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.
“Massachusetts is leading the way in offshore wind development and innovation, and we are proud to commit $4.75 million to help build an equitable offshore wind workforce that has the skills to meet the climate challenge,” Massachusetts Clean Energy Center CEO Emily Reichert said in a statement.
UMass was chosen to lead ARROW as the home of the oldest wind energy research center in the country. For almost 50 years, the UMass Wind Energy Center has been leading education, training and research in wind energy, and will continue to do so as part of the ARROW team.
“This major announcement will drive incredible innovation, training the diverse and skilled workforce of tomorrow to achieve our goal of building a net zero emissions economy by 2050,”U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern said in a statement. “I’m excited that the world-class students and researchers at UMass will lead efforts to decarbonize the U.S. power grid and realize the full potential of offshore wind energy,”
Staff Writer Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.