Wind Farm Could Add 11,0000 S.C. Jobs
GEORGETOWN — More than 11,000 jobs could be created if information gathered by the Palmetto Wind Research Project shows that wind energy is a viable option for South Carolina, state energy officials said at a news conference Monday.
Representatives from Santee Cooper, the S.C. Energy Office and Coastal Carolina University announced the project, which will try to determine whether there is enough offshore wind potential to build a wind farm off the state’s coast. S.C. Energy Office Director John Clark said renewable energy could be a major source of manufacturing and job growth in South Carolina, and wind energy could carry the largest employment potential.
“Eleven thousand jobs could be created in South Carolina if we become a hub of green [wind] energy,” Clark said Monday. “We could be creating green-collar jobs, environmental engineers, iron and steel mill workers, sheet metal workers, industrial truck drivers … there is potential for all kinds of jobs.”
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The Blue Green Alliance, a national partnership of labor unions and environmental organizations, tracks the creation and potential for green energy jobs.
The group recently released a study of South Carolina’s green energy job potential that estimates more than 22,300 jobs could be created in manufacturing and other industries through production of four kinds of alternative energy. According to the study, wind energy has the largest job potential in South Carolina, with 11,204 possible jobs.
“What our studies that were done with the renewable energy project showed was, by passing a renewable energy standard, that would set in motion the possibility of producing all of that renewable energy equipment in the United States. So we set out to identify the companies in each state that have the capacity to build all of the equipment that would be needed,” said David Foster, executive director of the alliance. “We’re not talking about hypothetical companies, we’re talking about real South Carolina, existing companies that have that capacity.”
The alliance report did not examine the potential for new companies or company relocations from other states. According to the report findings, neither Horry nor Georgetown counties were in the top 20 counties for job creation based on where existing companies are located.
Coastal Carolina University research economist Don Schunk said green-energy jobs deserve a closer look.
“Clearly any type of alternative-energy project is one that has a tremendous potential to create jobs. It’s easy to speculate on number of jobs that could be created, but it’s hard to pin it down with any kind of accuracy,” he said. “It’s clear that this is the path we’re going toward. There’s more funding, more research going into it. More economists are going to be looking at what are the job creation prospects and what it might mean for the overall economy.”
Lonnie Carter, president and chief executive officer of Santee Cooper, said that the possible benefits and detriments of the wind project were hypothetical as of Monday, because researchers will need at least 18 months to map whether the wind potential is great enough to invest in a wind farm.
The first step will be launching two strings of buoys outfitted with wind measuring devices and sonar, one at Winyah Bay in Georgetown and one near Waties Island off of Little River. That launch is scheduled to happen in the next two weeks depending on weather.
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