US first offshore wind crew transfer training facility launched at MMA
With much fanfare, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, Stephen Pike, CEO of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and many others joined officials from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA) launched the first-in-the-nation offshore wind crew transfer training facility. The group of state and college representatives also officially christened a new training vessel. The event underscored the efforts at MMA to both support, but also take full advantage of what stakeholders believe is the advent of offshore wind in the United States.
The training facility, which received a total of $1.73 million from the Administration and Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), will provide education, training and certification to thousands of residents, including Mass Maritime cadets, as well as skilled labor including electricians, pile drivers, divers and welders, enabling them to work in the emerging offshore wind industry.
For starters, the training facility represents an investment by the Commonwealth to grow a workforce for the offshore wind industry, which will support the construction and operation of Vineyard Wind’s 800-megawatt project, which was selected by the Commonwealth’s Electric District Companies in May 2018 under the state’s first competitive procurement for offshore wind. Eventually, it hopes to support training for myriad projects from coast-to-coast.
The project, a partnership between Mass Maritime, state government and industry, heralds the first domestic training facility accredited to provide a full safety training program required for workers in offshore wind. The offshore wind training facility will provide critical infrastructure that will give both college students and adults seeking new careers the necessary skills and certification to work in the emerging industry.
In a nutshell, the crew transfer training facility is a critical component of a comprehensive safety training program to be offered by Mass Maritime. The facility supports safety training for workers moving from relatively small crew transfer vessels to the fixed support structures of wind turbines in the open seas.
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