Vineyard Wind entered a partnership on Friday with international company Semco Maritime to build a maintenance facility in New Bedford, Mass., as part of the developer’s Commonwealth Wind proposals.

“This partnership builds on the work we’ve done in the city and brings new direct investment and additional good paying, long-term jobs for local residents,” Vineyard Wind CEO Lars Pedersen said in a statement.

Semco also will be the preferred supplier for maintenance of the 800-MW Vineyard Wind I project’s turbine foundations and electrical service platform. Both companies plan to hire 40 local technicians, engineers, managers and administrators.

Although the construction positions for OSW projects are short term, new wind farms have been proposed along the East Coast and will be under ongoing construction for the next couple of decades.

“While our Commonwealth Wind proposal has benefits for people across the state,” Pedersen said, “we know that New Bedford will continue to be a critical hub for the industry for decades to come.”

Vineyard Wind, which is a joint venture of Avangrid (NYSE: AGR) and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, said the agreement with Semco is contingent on Massachusetts selecting the Commonwealth Wind project in its latest OSW solicitation. The state expects to announce the winning bidders on Dec. 17.

The developer previously formed several partnerships in New Bedford and Salem contingent on Commonwealth Wind’s approval.

Vineyard Wind estimated it would spend about $200 million on materials and services from Massachusetts suppliers, and the developer partnered with Salem to transform a portion of its harbor into an OSW port.

Workforce Investment

After Vineyard Wind I gained federal approval earlier this year, its developers, along with OSW experts and public officials, descended on New Bedford to plan for the production, assembly and storage of massive turbines.

The developer’s 62-turbine project 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard is on track to be the first large-scale OSW farm in the country. Commonwealth Wind, which includes an 800-MW bid and a 1,200-MW bid, is sited directly south of Vineyard Wind I.

With Vineyard Wind I already under construction, Massachusetts will need to train or bring in thousands of workers with welding and electrical skills. More than 12,000 wind turbine technicians will be needed in the next decade, American Clean Power’s 2021 Clean Energy Labor Supply analysis says.

To fill the gap in the workforce, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker filed legislation on Oct. 14 that would allocate $750 million of the state’s American Rescue Plan Act recovery funding to develop the clean energy industry, including job training in OSW. Some of the funding would help higher education and vocational schools create OSW technical training programs.

Workers also need training on how to work safely in a marine environment on the open ocean on turbines towering more than 800 feet.

OSW Training in Schools

State policymakers are trying to attract college-age and high school students to clean energy careers.

Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Kathleen Theoharides and Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (Mass CEC) Interim CEO Jennifer Daloisio visited the vocational-technical high school in New Bedford in October to talk about the emerging OSW industry and the opportunity for careers in the field.

Last year, Mass CEC awarded $120,000 in grants to a virtual reality training program, VinciVR, to develop virtual OSW workforce training.

“Companies like Vinci working in partnership with schools like Greater New Bedford Vocational-Technical and our tremendous universities and community colleges will ensure that Massachusetts students are the best educated, best trained and best prepared for the clean energy jobs of the future,” Education Secretary James Peyser said in an Oct. 21 statement.

VinciVR is launching an Offshore Wind Recruiting Package, which converts the OSW training modules into interactive virtual reality experiences geared toward educating high school and middle school students about the scale and operations behind OSW, lowering the barriers to entry in the industry.

“The climate crisis is very daunting, and the OSW industry in the U.S. faces a lot of hurdles spanning the logistics of establishing a strong, union-backed workforce,” VinciVR CEO Eagle Wu said in a statement. “We have to do everything we can to inspire younger generations like mine to get involved and turn a crisis into an opportunity.”

Mass CEC also has an internship program that reimburses renewable energy companies that employ college student interns. In August, the center announced $1.6 million in workforce training funding to help people of color, women and other minorities get OSW workforce training.

The center’s Offshore Wind Workforce Grant program has put $2.2 million in grant funding since 2019 in community colleges, the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Bristol Community College now has an engineering associate degree in OSW technology and an OSW technician certificate.

With shipping company Maersk, the college is leasing a former seafood packing facility in New Bedford to create a National Offshore Wind Institute, which is set to open next year.