Oceantic Network
The Oceantic Network, formerly known as the Business Network for Offshore Wind, is the premier member-based organization dedicated to growing the offshore wind and other ocean renewable industries and their supply chains.
The Next Wave Leadership award recognizes a professional who is 35-years old or younger and has been in the industry less than ten years. This individual embodies the leadership qualities needed to advance the offshore wind industry into the next generation.
Project Submission: OpenFAST Design Code Enabling Floating Offshore Wind
Dr. Jason Jonkman is nominated for outstanding contributions he made to help launch the floating offshore wind industry. For 20 years, Dr. Jonkman worked to originate, engineer, maintain, and optimize FAST, one of the world’s first engineering computer design tools specifically developed to assess coupled dynamic loading on floating wind turbines.The FAST innovation led the way for the first generation of floating wind turbines and continues to serve the industry today as a principal asset.
In 2002 the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) first recognized offshore wind and tasked the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) with initiating an offshore wind research program. At this time, floating wind turbines were considered fringe technology studied only by a few with very little physics-based evidence of viability. The DOE vision was to explore the feasibility of floating wind technology, a job which came to rest on Jason Jonkman.
Jason spent many years, while gaining his PhD, reworking and upgrading the clunky land-based wind turbine dynamics code, FAST, and creating a new offshore code. By 2005, this uber FAST code could now simulate wave actions, anchor system dynamics, coupled floating platform dynamics and integrate the advanced controls needed to stabilize the complex system motions. His early work was so important and respected that it was followed by many European researchers. For 20 years, Dr. Jonkman worked to originate, engineer, maintain, and optimize the FAST Code, now called OpenFAST, one of the world’s first engineering computer design tools specifically developed to assess coupled dynamic loading on floating wind turbines.
At the first European offshore wind conference in Copenhagen in 2005, Jason co-founded an international research project on offshore code evaluation sponsored by IEA Wind, Task 30, which continues today under the leadership of NREL’s Dr. Amy Robertson. This IEA project, known as the Offshore Codes Comparison Collaborative, led to improvements in all offshore analysis codes worldwide, due in a large part to Jason’s work and leadership. This industry-wide quality assurance process remains a critical pillar of the offshore wind industry today. In addition, Jason has served continuously on the IEC TC-88 61400-3-1 offshore wind design standards committee to ensure it contains the latest design practices followed by designers.
Because of Jason’s work, the NREL/DOE’s offshore wind research is among the best in the world. His work provided robust stability to the NREL offshore wind program even while federal support for offshore wind wavered. He is considered the most knowledgeable floating offshore turbine analyst in the world. His work with FAST has given the industry a transparent, open-source design tool which is second to none and will be recognized by experts for decades.
Project Submission: Growing the American Offshore Wind Workforce
Ørsted operates the Block Island Wind Farm, America’s first offshore wind farm, and constructed the two-turbine Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind pilot project – the first turbines to be installed in federal waters. Ørsted has approximately 5,000 megawatts of offshore wind energy in development in five states and across seven projects.
These projects include:
Revolution Wind:
South Fork Wind:
Sunrise Wind:
Ocean Wind 1:
Ocean Wind 2:
Skipjack Wind:
As the leading developer both globally and in the U.S., Ørsted Offshore North America is at the forefront of equitably growing an American offshore wind workforce. Under the leadership of Allison Ziogas, Head of Labor Relations, Ørsted has developed a best-in-class approach to labor relations and workforce development. This includes supporting current workers as they seek to apply their skills in the offshore wind industry, funding and guiding local training programs to create the next generation of offshore wind workers, launching brand new supportive programs that increase access to offshore wind careers, setting diversity goals to track progress on equity promises, encouraging job-creating supply chain opportunities to be in the U.S., and more.
Project Submission:
Construction of the First U.S. Flagged Jone Act-compliant SRI Vessel
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company, LLC is fully engaged in the rapidly developing U.S.
offshore wind market. Its first step in this effort is the investment into the construction of the first U.S. flagged Jones Act-compliant, subsea rock installation (SRI) vessel. The vessel is currently under construction and will set new standards for efficiency and innovation with its large capacity, accurate placement technology, innovative battery, and alternative fuel system.
The company’s journey to seize this unique, once-in-a-generation opportunity to enter the offshore wind market is complex and challenging. Challenges include:
Project Submission: A Holistic Approach to Offshore Wind Investment
The Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) was an early supporter of the offshore wind industry. MEA and the State of Maryland have sought to establish a competitive offshore wind supply chain in the state. MEA has taken a holistic approach to creating an offshore wind market consisting of Maryland-based businesses and skilled workers. This approach includes investments in strategies to de-risk offshore wind development, decrease the levelized cost of energy of offshore wind projects, centralize Maryland as an offshore wind supply chain hub for the east coast, and increase the economic opportunities available for businesses and individuals.
MEA has accomplished this by:
Project Submission: Construction of the First Commercial-Scale Offshore Wind Energy Project in the U.S.
Developing Vineyard Wind 1 in close cooperation with local and federal stakeholders led to the breakthrough of an entire offshore wind industry in the U.S. By submitting a proposal in response to the first offshore wind solicitation in Massachusetts, Vineyard Wind paved the way for offshore wind in the U.S. by showing that it could be competitive with existing energy sources. VineyardWind LLC (VineyardWind) has successfully permitted, financed, and is currently constructing the nation’s first commercial-scale offshore wind energy project in the U.S.
Other notable achievements include securing a strong and attractive financing package from a syndicate of leading project financing banks from a consortium of nine international and U.S.-based banks. Vineyard Wind is the first U.S. offshore wind developer to have successfully concluded this critical transaction. Vineyard Wind also executed an offshore wind Project Labor Agreement (PLA), the first of its kind in the industry, which guarantees approximately 500 union jobs during the project’s construction phase. The PLA also includes ambitious diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals.
Vineyard Wind has a clear ambition to secure the long-term sustainability of U.S. offshore wind. Through a combination of local commitments and partnerships, Vineyard Wind has committed to local employment, network-building among local and regional suppliers in southeastern Massachusetts, and establishment of operations and maintenance (O&M) facilities on Martha’s Vineyard, and meaningful local support for infrastructure for local communities, while supporting the region’s climate change and renewable energy targets and helping local communities go green.