Industry and Job Pathways

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Supporting a New Industry

CADEMO represents a significant investment opportunity for both the local region and the broader State. We are committed to ensuring that the local community benefits from our investment, and we are actively collaborating with stakeholders to identify how we can achieve the greatest possible economic, social, and environmental advantages from the project.

Launching a large-scale floating wind industry in California presents an unprecedented challenge. However, early projects like CADEMO can pave the way for future success. Constructing multiple full-scale floating foundations — each the size of a football field, with turbines reaching 870 feet tall, built from either welded steel or concrete, and each platform exceeding 15,000 tonnes — will require substantial industrial effort and could create thousands of jobs throughout the state.  In the work carried out within our High Road Training Partnership, we identified the job roles the project would support and the number of jobs that would be created to support future GW-scale projects.

Supply Chain and Ports

The offshore wind industry faces a critical obstacle: the State lacks sufficient port infrastructure to construct and assemble floating foundations. This is not uncommon, as seen internationally, local ports are not readily equipped to deal with the size and scale of these large structures.  Compounding this issue is a shortage of experienced industrial supply chains capable of producing the hundreds of foundations and thousands of subcomponents each project demands.

 

Cost of energy is driving the future electricity generation system and is the primary focus of the Californian ratepayer.   If these industrial-readiness gaps remain unaddressed and we fail to prepare in time, local industry may not be competitive.  As a result, the future of commercial-scale projects will likely rely on lower-cost imported products, limiting local economic growth and expertise and sending socio-economic value outside of the State.

 

We are committed to contributing to the transformation of the landscape.  In recent years, we have forged partnerships with state ports, construction firms, industrial specialists, marine service providers and labor unions.  Together, we are developing a comprehensive strategy to expand facilities and industrial capacity.  Our objective is to generate high-wage, sustainable jobs and establish a robust, homegrown offshore wind industry here in California.

Taking the High Road

Together with the State Building and Construction Trades Council, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, CADEMO has been awarded a three-year grant by the California Workforce Development Board to create a High Road Training Partnership for California offshore wind.

This Partnership will explore ways to maximize in-state, unionized jobs and community benefits from both this project and the state-wide offshore wind industry in the coming years. It aims to address, directly and transparently, the often-overlooked realities in offshore wind policy discussions regarding the sector’s promised green jobs. Because the offshore wind industry is highly globalized and competitive, coordinated action and cooperation among government, industry, and local stakeholders will be essential to ensure Californians genuinely benefit.

Supply Chain Register

Those who are interested in being a potential supplier and supplying services to the CADEMO project, should register their details on the Supply Chain Register on our website receive direct communication about supply chain events and key activity:

Supply Chain Register