New Jersey is spending $5 million on two programs to train wind energy sector workers and educate 2,000 energy efficiency workers in a partnership with Public Service Electric and Gas, as the state gears up to reach for its ambitious carbon-free goals.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) last week announced a $1 million grant to go to the community college that submits the best proposal on how to prepare workers to provide operations and maintenance services for the state’s nascent offshore wind sector. The proposal followed NJEDA’s announcement in February of $3 million set aside to establish an industry-recognized safety training program and facility for the OSW sector.

Meanwhile, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development announced on March 29 that it was offering $1 million for a partnership with PSE&G on a program to award grants to community organizations to train workers in skills needed to implement energy efficiency projects. Some of the 2,000 training positions will go to dislocated or laid off workers, the long-term unemployed, and ex-offenders. The program, which begins on June 1, will teach skills including workforce readiness and financial literacy.

The announcements are part of New Jersey’s effort to position itself at the forefront of the clean energy sector. Gov. Phil Murphy’s wants the state to use 100% clean energy and reduce carbon emissions by 80% below 2006 levels by 2050. His plans include the construction of a wind port in South Jersey to serve as a wind manufacturing and staging hub for New Jersey and nearby states, and the creation of a monopile manufacturing facility at a port in Paulsboro, which would build steel components for OSW turbines.

Murphy also wants the state to generate 7,500 MW of OSW by 2035. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities in June 2019 approved its first project, the 1,100-MW Ocean Wind, and is expected this June to pick the winner of a second solicitation, with a goal of generating 1,200 to 2,400 MW.

Clean Energy Workforce

Yet the state will need to work fast to create a workforce ready to handle that rapid transition. New Jersey ranked 23rd in the nation by the number of clean energy jobs in 2020, according to the Clean Jobs America 2021 report. It was compiled by E2, a national, nonpartisan group of business leaders and investors, and BW Research Partnership, a California research firm. California ranked first, with 484,980 clean energy jobs.

The report also said that New Jersey has 1.33% of its workforce employed in clean energy, a smaller share than every state except Oklahoma: 50,096 jobs in 2020, of which about 66% were in the energy efficiency sector and 17.5% were in solar or wind. Like other states, however, New Jersey’s clean energy employment dipped in 2020, as the pandemic squeezed the economy.

Still, New Jersey’s employee base should provide a solid foundation on which to build a clean energy workforce, according to a study commissioned by Murphy to assess what the state would need to do to support the development of a wind energy sector in the state and its neighbors. The state has significant labor market strengths to help meet the demand for clean energy workers, including a sizeable trade sector, with a recent growth in the numbers of iron and steel workers, electricians, and crane and tower operators.

The report added that “it is important that we act quickly to provide opportunities for workers to obtain offshore wind-specific knowledge, skills and qualifications.”

Training New Workers

In response, NJEDA reached out to academic institutions, training providers and unions to submit proposals for the $3 million safety training program. The program will be taught in line with the standards of the Global Wind Organisation, a nonprofit body founded by wind turbine manufacturers and operators that aims to support an injury-free environment in the wind industry. NJEDA is expected to announce the successful program proposal over the summer.

The agency is soliciting proposals for the community college program. The goal is to create an “industry-recognized, credit-bearing certificate program and pathway to an associate degree or higher” that will teach subjects that could include wind power technology, information technology and software programs, and turbine operations and maintenance. Other potential topics include renewable energy and electrical and mechanical systems, NJEDA said in an outline of the project.

“It’s a mix” of skills, said Jenifer Becker, managing director of developing NJEDA’s WIND Institute. “We’re really looking at this as a career development program, not just as [training for] a single job, but really looking to help support people in their careers in offshore wind [and] clean energy.”

The Labor Department initiative with PSE&G is aimed at developing workers, especially those from New Jersey’s urban areas, in what the utility sees as a growing employment sector in the future. The need for these jobs is partly being driven by customers seeking to cut their bills and mitigate climate change, the company said. They will include entry and mid-level jobs, such as weatherization apprentice, weatherization technician and residential energy auditor, the company said.

“If you look at the U.S. energy economy, energy efficiency is the No. 1 source of jobs growth,” PSE&G President David M. Daly told a forum on held by the governor’s Office of Climate Action and the Green Economy on May 13. “It represents half the jobs growth in the energy sector.”

Shaun Keegan, CEO of Asbury Park-based Solar Landscape, said the solar panel installation company has developed its own training programs to ensure that it has a steady flow of new employees, in part because of the relative paucity of training programs elsewhere. About half of the company’s 100 employees are in relatively unskilled positions, for which the company has a two-day training program, Keegan said. The company also provides that training in conjunction with roofing materials manufacturer GAF, he said.

Solar Landscape also runs an apprenticeship program for employees who are learning the highly skilled electrical side of the business, Keegan said. He added that he expects the company to continue training its own employees, even if more formal education programs for the solar industry emerge.

“I think our background, having been on the install side for 10 years now, makes us the most qualified to actually go out and effectively train,” he said.