In the coming months, the nation’s largest offshore wind farm will come fully online off the coast of Virginia Beach. Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) delivered its first power to the grid this Spring, and when complete, will supply 9.5 million megawatt-hours of renewable energy every year, enough clean power for 660,000 homes.
With a project of this scale – and hopefully more to come off our coast – Virginia needs a skilled, trained, local workforce to deploy and maintain the giant wind turbines and infrastructure to power our future.
HB67 and SB25 help make this happen by providing a pipeline to these good-paying jobs and ensuring offshore workers can access training and certifications here in Virginia instead of travelling out-of-state for those professional development opportunities. These include the Global Wind Organization training to meet minimum safety standards, which workers must complete every two years.
HB67 passed the House on a bipartisan vote of 86-12 while SB25 passed on a party-line vote in the Senate. The bills were signed into law by Gov. Spanberger.