OSW Supply Chain September Update

No better way to kick off the fall season than with a well-executed LI Offshore Wind Supply Chain conference! For the 200 or so remote and in-person attendees, I hope we were able to provide you with superior panelists and content worthy of the 3 hours you had to carve out from your day. 

Our thanks to the Congressman and his staff for pulling off a well-executed and well-paced event. Also thanks  to our partners at the Long Island Federation of Labor and Climate Jobs NY, I think we made a great team, developing the speakers lists and Q&A’s. 

The keynote speakers came at the topic from many different angles. Starting with Liz Shuler, President, AFL-CIO, who added a wonderful jobs/middle class/fair wage perspective to the conversation. Walking us through the history of union workers in energy markets going back decades and why labor now has a seat at the table for offshore wind and why that’s an imperative for being able to see our region benefit from the economic opportunities being presented. As the Congressman pointed out, we want the larger companies to succeed but we also need to see our local companies succeed. That can’t happen unless we take the skilled labor we have now and upskill them for these projects. In the early phases, that means training for operations and maintenance workers, followed by manufacturers, service providers, and others. 

Siri Kindem, President, Equinor US Wind, followed with an overview of her company and their project approach. Siri pointed out a few times that these projects are early stage and thus their current interactions with other companies are Tier 1 (GE, Siemens Gamesa). That means we are on our own at the moment when it comes to developing the down-market part of the supply chain. I would expect to see increasing support from NYSERDA on this of course, and eventually the developers themselves. She did confirm that operations centers are being constructed in the Port of Albany for manufacturing and Brooklyn for operations and maintenance (O&M) training. I must also mention that our sponsors Orsted have committed to building an O&M training facility in Suffolk County. Siri pointed out the many areas of manufacturing that will be needed beyond the obvious blades and towers. Electrical cabling, substations, power control systems, general infrastructure, along with maritime services and more. 

Newsletters are not meant to be long winded, so I won’t go into the details of the panels, but I strongly suggest that even if you attended, go to the “video tape replay” and re-watch them. We had some key players in the industry; Vestas (turbines), TPI Composites (blades), Orsted (Developer), and a host of supporting experts from government and non-profits, filling in the knowledge gap as best anyone can. 

The recording of the full event is viewable on our website by clicking HERE

Pictured above – On the left –  Congressman Suozzi throwing a few direct questions at Equinor’s Siri Kindem; on the right – the Congressman flanked by Ivy and Stephen (our web developers par excellence, decked out in OSW Supply Chain sweatshirts – available shortly for purchase) and Marj Issapour of Farmingdale College along with other happy participants.