Offshore Wind and Hampton Roads: Opportunities for Leadership and Innovation

Jerry Cronin & Matt Smith

February 1, 2021 at 2:00 PM at this link
(For NASA Langley employees and contractors only.)

Abstract

With a national target to deploy 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030, a new industry is growing in the U.S., one that holds great economic promise for Hampton Roads and for the attainment of the Commonwealth’s renewable energy goals. With development of Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind and Avangrid Renewables’ Kitty Hawk Offshore Wind projects, Virginia is on a trajectory to be a leader of offshore wind development in the U.S. The Commonwealth is also a natural fit to become a supply chain and innovation hub for this new industry with our best-in-class port infrastructure, a large and skilled maritime workforce, and competitive business climate. We will discuss the opportunity from offshore wind, market drivers, the project pipeline on the East Coast, Virginia’s offshore wind advantages, and the initiatives our organizations are taking to establish Hampton Roads as a hub of the this new industry.

Speaker

Jerry Cronin is an Executive Director at Old Dominion University’s Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship. He leads the Open Seas initiative, a globally engaged innovation hub focused on maritime and coastal issues whose mission is to work with entrepreneurs, industries, organizations, and communities. Jerry’s background is applying creativity and systems thinking to solving problems and implementing solutions. In approaching issues, he draws upon broad and diverse experience which spans commercial and government work in both domestic and international settings. As a Coast Guard officer, he served as a shipboard operations officer, and was instrumental in redesigning the service’s maritime law enforcement training. He participated in business start-ups related to consulting and environmental regulatory compliance. He developed and ran the commercial and civil government practice at a Fortune 150 center of excellence and was a corporate go-to solutions architect for main thrust ($50M+) business pursuits across a variety of business sectors. In addition to his current work at ODU, he provides mentorship and consulting to companies in both the US and globally.

Matt Smith joined the Hampton Roads Alliance in August 2020 as Director of Offshore Wind. Matt’s role at the Alliance is to develop and promote Hampton Roads as a hub of the emerging East Coast offshore wind industry.

Before joining the Alliance, Matt was a Senior Regional Planner at the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission. He worked in the areas of strategic, environmental, and comprehensive planning. Matt came to the HRPDC from the City of Hampton’s Community Development Department where he helped begin Hampton’s resilience planning program.  Prior to his career in community development, Matt worked for a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and for a research and consulting firm. Matt is a native of Hampton Roads. He has a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Virginia Commonwealth University and a B.A. in American History from Washington and Lee University

short link: https://go.nasa.gov/3DLpUzo