Siemens Gamesa and Boston-based startup Vinci VR have secured funding from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center to develop Virtual Reality (VR) training simulations for the offshore wind sector in Massachusetts and the U.S. East Coast.
The USD 124,670 grant will be used to create the first Global Wind Organizations (GWO) certified VR training tools, starting with the Basic Technical Training-Installation and Slinger Signaler courses.
Siemens Gamesa and Vinci VR said they hope to later expand the development of VR simulations to additional GWO modules.
According to the parties, the aim of the collaboration is to create low-cost VR training to address the large workforce gap in the U.S. offshore wind sector.
The VR integrations for the initial two courses will be developed, audited, and tested by July 2021.
“The U.S. offshore wind industry is growing and shows a lot of promise,” said Steve Dayney , Head of Offshore, North America, Siemens Gamesa.
“We have already secured over 4 GW of conditional offshore wind turbine orders in the U.S. and with this partnership, we hope to help close the workforce training gap in a safe, expedited and cost-efficient manner, all while increasing probability of U.S. based green energy jobs.”