In a state known for its oil and gas industry, companies are looking at Louisiana to build up the country’s offshore wind industry infrastructure.
In Houma, officials from New England utility company Eversource and renewable energy developer Orsted toured the progress of the first U.S. built service operation vessel to help maintain offshore wind farms.
This comes months after the U.S. Department of Interior proposed the first offshore wind auction in the Gulf of Mexico. The proposed auction sites include 100,000 acres in the waters off Lake Charles and two similarly-sized sites off the coast of Texas — sites in the Gulf that Orsted officials admitted they were keeping a close eye on as the lease sale approaches.
The ship, named Eco Edison, is being built by Cut Off-based Edison Chouest Offshore, a company that traditionally builds ships for offshore oil and gas operations.
Hardy said Louisiana has piqued the interest of companies wanting to develop and expand energy alternative infrastructure because of its resources already in place by the fossil fuel industry, specifically its workforce.
“The first place that we see opportunity for Louisiana is leveraging the oil and gas industry knowledge that's been here for many, many decades,” Hardy said.
Construction started last year, and the ship is about halfway complete. Edison Chouest Offshore employed more than 400 workers for this project. The massive, 262-foot-long vessel is expected to be completed in 2024.
Once ready, the boat will be stationed out of Port Jefferson, New York, and service Orsted and Eversource’s three offshore wind farms off the coasts of Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York. These projects won’t be fully constructed until 2025, but are expected to generate more than 1.7 gigawatts of offshore wind energy — enough to power more than one million homes.
The ship will serve as a floating home base for 60 American offshore wind energy technicians.
Mike Ausere, Eversource vice president of business development, said investment into offshore wind will help drive economic growth in the country.
“I'm very impressed with the progress that we saw today in the shipyard,” Ausere said. “America's energy future and the promise that it holds is taking shape right before our eyes, expanding opportunities for workers here in Louisiana, and in states across the nation.”
A 2020 study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory said a single offshore wind project in the Gulf of Mexico could bring 4,470 jobs and a $445 million boost to the country’s economy during construction. Once in operation, a single wind farm is projected to create 150 jobs and $14 million annually during operating years.
There has been a steady decline of work in the fossil fuel industry in Louisiana for decades. In the 1980s, 35% of Louisiana’seconomy was made up of oil and gas jobs. Now, that number sits at 2.5%. That has left room for offshore workers to transition out of oil and into wind.
Local institutions have already begun preparing the next generation of workers and translating their skills to the new developing industry. Just last year, for example, Nicholls State University in Thibodaux was awarded a $1.8 million grant to establish a new degree program that will prepare students for a career in the renewable energy sector.
U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, the Republican representative for the Houma area and part of Terrebonne Parish, was in attendance to tour the ship as well as briefly discuss a bill he has co-sponsored in Congress, the Lower Energy Costs Act. Part of the bill supports further development of wind farms by providing states with offshore wind development half of the revenue made from wind farm lease sales.
The bill passed the House, but isn’t expected to be approved by the U.S. Senate. It has also been heavily criticized by environmental advocates and the Biden administration for its support of more mining and drilling, cutting taxes for oil and gas companies, weakening refinery safety regulations and undermining the Clean Air Act.
When asked questions about the bill at the event, Scalise argued the energy industry shouldn’t have to be an either-or when it comes to supporting fossil fuels and energy alternatives.
“It's not a question of which source of energy do we need and do we get rid of this source of energy to go to that source of energy. The world is going to need more energy, and we're going to need all forms of energy.” Scalise said.
Hardy said he views wind as a source that can meet the country’s growing energy needs. He pointed to other places in the Gulf South that the company is investing in to ramp up wind energy development, such as Texas, where the country’s first wind turbine installation vessel is being built.
“This is a new emerging, monumental energy source for America, and it's a clean source,” Hardy said. “And it's something that we really believe will have a long-term future, especially as we build out the domestic supply chain for it.”
