When Joseph Massi enrolled at Bristol Community College, an hour’s drive south of Boston, he chose to major in a brand new field of study — offshore wind power.
“It’s the new future, it’s where everything is going to be, the growth potential, especially in Massachusetts,” said Massi.
The Massachusetts Legislature is considering bills that would commit the state to 100 percent renewable energy within 25 years. To achieve this, the state will need many more solar panels and wind turbines, and people like Massi to manage, build and operate offshore turbines.
"Once it starts booming in the United States, that’s going to be where you want to be,” he said.
The federal government estimates that the coastal waters off of New Bedford are among the windiest in the nation. But here’s some bad news: here in the U.S., we don’t know much about building wind turbines out in the ocean. And here’s some good news: The Brits do, and they’re offering to help.
Offshore wind is booming in the United Kingdom — it’s approaching 10 percent of the electricity supply there. In the U.S., offshore wind energy remains in its infancy — only one offshore wind farm is operational nationwide, off the coast of Rhode Island. But about a dozen projects nationwide are in the planning stages.
Harriet Cross, the British consul general to New England, wants to share her country’s expertise to help kick start the movement in the U.S. Yes, that would mean making money for British companies that could sell technology and equipment in the U.S. But Cross says there are also higher stakes at play.
“There’s the bigger picture — we want the world to be more green,” said Cross. “We genuinely believe that clean energy is the future. So you find that the U.K. is really showing global leadership on things like the Paris Climate Change deal and that sort of thing.”
British wind energy companies recently struck a deal to help develop Bristol Community College’s new wind power curriculum.
“We've made mistakes in the last 20 years that we've been doing this, so we can share that expertise with places like New Bedford, so that they can do it more quickly than we have,” said Cross. “They can avoid some of the pitfalls.”
Students in New Bedford will learn the technical ropes for working in offshore wind. New Bedford could use a dose of new industry — the city used to be a hub of textile manufacturing, but those days are long gone. The area has struggled economically in recent years — today, the median household income there is slightly more than half of the rest of Massachusetts.
And while the city may not be wealthy, its fishing industry is doing well — it’s the most valuable commercial fishing port in the United States. So out on the docks, they’re a bit wary of what the British are selling.
“Trust me, there’s not one commercial fisherman on this dock, or on any other, that wants offshore wind,” said Edward Washburn, the New Bedford port director.
Washburn said for the past decade, they’ve been focused on making sure that offshore wind turbines don’t impact fishermen.
“They’ve been commercial fishing in these areas, in some case their families have been doing it for centuries,” he said. “Any change to that is not welcomed. Each one of these windfarms impacts different fisheries to different extents.”
But there are trade-offs in New Bedford.
“We see the effects of climate change in full view here,” said New Bedford’s mayor, Jon Mitchell. “We've noticed that our beaches have eroded, but we also know that warming seas have changed the composition of the fish landings here. And we also know that ocean acidification looms as a major threat to the fishing industry.”
Wind farms — which cut down on our reliance on polluting fossil fuels— can help reduce those threats. They can also bring in jobs. In the U.K., about 8,000 people are working directly in the offshore wind industry, which is helping to revive many older British manufacturing towns.
“New Bedford is very similar to places like Hull and Grimsby in the U.K.,” said Cross. “It's places that are not as vibrant as they used to be. But that is all changing now. And it’s very satisfying to see that the U.K. can be a role model for places like New Bedford.”
This spring, Massachusetts regulators greenlit plans for the nation’s largest offshore wind farm, to be constructed by European companies.
The fishermen in New Bedford can see the writing on the wall. Washburn said while they may be wary of new hulking windmills in their waters, they also know that fishermen need to be part of the conversation.
“To be a successful port, you need to be versatile, you need to go and get opportunities,” said Washburn. “There’s a lot of supporting businesses on this waterfront that can fuel offshore wind vessels, fuel operations and maintenance vessels for the offshore wind industry. So we think offshore can be an opportunity that aligns with and co-exists with the commercial fishing industry.”
Even with British help, there are still plenty of barriers to offshore wind development in the U.S., including expense, aesthetic concerns and worries about the impacts on marine life.
But the potential is huge. Some energy experts estimate that there are enough winds blowing offshore to power the entire east coast.
Sarah Mizes-Tan from WGBH News' Cape Cod bureau contributed to this story.
