Offshore wind farms are becoming part of America and the world's renewable energy landscape.

And now the Gulf of Maine is being considered a possible s for offshore wind development.

In this series of stories, you'll learn about this emerging techno and what it might mean for you, our coastal communities and the Gulf of Maine's natural environment.

In this story, part ten of 11, we'll dive into the implications of offshor development on coastal communiti and economies.

If offshore wind comes to the Gulf of Maine, there will be a ripple effect that comes ashore.

Local communities will need to prepare a local wor and supply chain to support deve A good place to look for what mi in some Gulf communities is in Massachusetts.

So my role is director of labor, Workforce development and local content for Vineyard O Vineyard wind is already at work building an offshore wind project off the coast of Ma Vineyard.

The port that they work out of is in New Bedford.

The scale of the project is smal than what's anticipate in the Gu but the needs are similar.

I would use New Bedford is a really good cas as to what actually happens when offshore wind comes to town and we're doing our best to try and understand which businesses and people have seen opportunity because of the project.

95% will not be working directly for Vineyard Offshore, Vineyard Wind or the d They'll be working for a company that has scope on the project so So tier ones are the major compo you think of with an offshore wi And they're the contracts that a directly has for the equipment.

So things like turbines, foundat export cable, offshore substatio onshore substation.

Tier twos are the businesses that directly serve the tier one So those would be things like ve that they're using or components that go into, the various tier one equipment.

And then further down are just c that kind of subcontract and sub under which oftentimes are busin that already exist that serve a that we have, whether it's local support or marine supplies.

So the supply chain really does start to spider out.

And in our coastal communities that are already serving the mar industry, whether it's commercial fishing or anything really offshore, a lot of times we have existing that are very much needed for of wind.

Head farther north to Salem, Massachusetts, and you'll find a port in transi Salem is the location for a port that's being developed to serve the offshore wind indus We had had this long term goal of transitioning from this dirty energy production site to clean energy.

A coal and electric plant once sat on this site.

It shut down a decade ago and a gas electrical power plant repla More than 40 acres of land were left over and unused.

It's now the site of a wind services comp They're essentially developing a terminal, and their business is they've opened a new business for wind services where they pro all the logistics that are neede offshore wind developers to actu know, build and install their wi And what we've worked really har about from day one is looking at it's not just as a clean energy transition, but also looking at an environmental justice perspec so that folks that had, you know borne the brunt of the dirty energy generation would benefit from it.

And then those bids that the off developers have submitted, they do look at providing local and by local content we're looking at hiring people l working with businesses locally.

My name is Brian Moore.

I'm national director of local c Brian Moore works for the MRV Group in New York.

He helps bridge offshore wind de with local workforce and busines Brian's focus is on local conten Local content is is the focus on small, local, diverse resources to ensure that to, ensure that they get opportu for these large infrastructure p specifically offshore wind.

One of the main ways that we wor with the community and the offsh developers is, we work to establ the timeline for these projects.

We work to identify you know, the small, local, diverse businesses and the citiz that you want to be part of this this clean energy revolution.

Ask them what their local conten plan is.

Understand what they what they're going to do in your from a supply chain perspective.

Also from community benefit investment to stakeholde engagement and workforce develop Understanding those those four a What's the plan?

So in Salem, we have different neighborhoods that hav lower income individuals or non, native English speakers or higher unemp and some neighborhoods that have of those characteristics.

And that's really where the focu is looking at opportunities for those individuals to become part of the workforce.

A committee in New Hampshire is considering how to prepare a that will meet the needs of the new industry.

So it's a workforce training group, and it is a really eclectic grou So Great Bay is part of that.

The university, the high schools the CTE's.

I think together working reaching out to the industry partners, the energy sector.

That's going to give us the all right, here's the plan.

This is where we're going.

So this is the training that we So we're always looking at readi Reading the jobs, reading the the workforce.

And especially the partnerships all of the business and industry partners because they're telling us where, what do they need.

All of our project Vineyard Wind one has been done under a project labor agreement, which means that we have incorporated local union workers into all scopes of work in particular the offshore work, which is new to the local workfo And we've had to do all sorts of additional training in making sure that the people with their existing skill sets, that have the right qualificatio and certifications to go and per work offshore.

These are career opportunities if you do align yourself with direct workforce developmen The Winds of Change in the Gulf of Maine series is a co-production of New Hampsh and New Hampshire Sea Grant, wit from the University of New Hamps Production funding was provided by the National Oce and Atmospheric Administration.