Name: Nina Choquette

Your Technical Discipline: Ocean Engineering

Years in industry: 1.5 years

Years at Xodus: 8 months

What is your role at Xodus?

I am a renewables consultant at Xodus and I have been working on a lot of supply chain and workforce analyses, I have also involved in site selection and economic development scopes.

You haven’t been at Xodus long, what attracted you to join?

I was interested in joining Xodus because I wanted to be a part of the quickly growing offshore wind industry. Offshore renewable energy has always piqued my interest and I wanted to join a company that was full of people with similar interests to me. So far it has been everything I was hoping, the Boston team has been amazing and just as enthusiastic as I am about offshore wind.  

What are you most excited about for offshore wind in the US?

I am most excited about watching the industry grow and adapt to the US market. The US market has its own set of unique challenges that European developers will have to work through. It will be interesting to see how they change their current methods to accommodate the US market. It is also very exciting to have this new, massive source of green energy developing so close to home.

What is the biggest challenge the industry is facing?

In my opinion one of the key challenges the industry is facing is port readiness. There are few ports capable of supporting the installation of offshore wind in the US, in particular, floating offshore wind. These projects require significant space and water depth which is not standard in current US ports. Upgrading ports to get them to where they need to safely and efficiently install offshore wind could be a long and expensive process.