10-02-2025
What's the 'blue economy'? RI turns to the ocean for next wave of economic development
Almost everybody knows that General Dynamics Electric Boat makes nuclear submarines at its Quonset Point shipyard on the shores of Narragansett Bay, but Rhode Island waters are also home to a burgeoning "blue economy," as local companies build state-of-the-art marine products.
"From cutting-edge research and development in pharmaceuticals to advancements in renewable energy, addressing sea level rise, and strengthening our defense industry, the blue economy is driving innovation, creating jobs and building a more resilient and prosperous future,' Commerce Secretary Liz Tanner said when announcing tax incentives in December for a company that plans to build autonomous undersea vehicles in Bristol.
Tanner's Commerce Department is full steam ahead trying to attract such companies.
"Boasting nearly 400 miles of coastline, Rhode Island is known as The Ocean State for a reason," says a department brochure aimed at persuading companies to relocate or expand in Rhode Island. "Our strategic location, port infrastructure, skilled labor, and novel training programs supplying the workers of the future make Rhode Island an ideal location for growing blue-economy companies in off-shore wind energy, defense, shipbuilding, aquaculture & seafood, and more."
And companies are responding.
From vehicles that transport people on or above the water to submarines that operate with no people on board, from offshore wind power to top-secret weapons and guidance systems, Rhode Island companies are making a splash in the rapidly growing blue economy.
Rhode Island has become such a player in the blue economy that it's hosting the two-day Blue Innovation Symposium, which bills itself as "New England's Premier Marine Technology Event," beginning Tuesday, with tours of blue economy sites in Bristol and North Kingstown the day before.
Here's a look at some of what else is happening on − and under − the Ocean State's waters:
A lot of what MIKEL makes, the Middletown company won't tell you much about because of the hush-hush military applications of its technology.
Three years ago, the company let a few details slip about its efforts to develop a GPS-like guidance system for submarines.
Four months ago, the Navy announced a $14 million contract for the company to help develop advancements in torpedo technology.
The five-year contract will allow MIKEL to provide research, development and analysis focused on signal processing, classification and tracking algorithms for torpedoes.
In December, Saab received nearly $4 million in state incentives for a new factory in Bristol where it will build and test autonomous undersea vehicles, often called drone submarines. The company, which already has a facility in Cranston, will produce small- and medium-sized vehicles.
Saab shares a corporate history with the automobile brand of the same name, but they are now independent companies.
Saab's Bristol factory will be the anchor tenant in Unity Park, a historical industrial park that is being reenvisioned as a "blue-economy hub." The park is already home to several businesses.
Already in Unity Park, Flux Marine makes electric outboard motors. Like the Tesla of the boating world, Flux Marine's engines are quiet and emission-free and accelerate more quickly than their gas-powered counterparts.
Also in Unity Park, Sealegs sells and services amphibious rigid inflatable boats that can transform from watercraft to vehicles capable of driving on dry land.
Late last month, REGENT Craft broke ground on a 255,000-square-foot factory to build seagliders, airplane-like craft that fly 30 to 60 feet above the water. The all-electric passenger seagliders are meant to replace ferries, helicopters and traditional planes for short-haul sea transportation. They offer the speed of an airplane but cost as much as a boat to operate and produce zero emissions.
'Not only will this make Rhode Island the manufacturing capital of seagliders in the U.S.," company co-founder and chief executive Billy Thalheimer told the Commerce Department board when it approved $4 million in incentives for the factory, "it will also continue the state's leadership in composites manufacturing and the blue economy.'
In June, Anduril, a company that builds autonomous submarines the size of Volkswagen buses, announced that, after a nationwide search, it had selected a site in Quonset Point to build a factory, with plans to open it this September.
Although the company has commercial customers, such as companies that perform deep-sea inspections, the majority of its work is for the defense departments of the United States and its allies, spokesman Jackson Lingane said after the Commerce Department board approved $5.4 million in tax incentives. The primary mission of vehicles to be built in Rhode Island will be intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, Lingane said.
In August, state officials welcomed underwater cable manufacturer Nexans to the Cambridge Innovation Center in Providence, where the company joined more than 30 other offshore wind companies with offices in the center.
As wind farms are under construction in the waters near Rhode Island, state officials hailed a growing cluster of wind-power companies in the Ocean State. 'Companies from around the world are taking notice of what's happening in Rhode Island, choosing to land offshore wind operations in Providence,' Tanner said when Nexans opened its offices.
Nexans supplies cables that transfer electricity from offshore turbines to the land-based power infrastructure.
It's hard to look at Rhode Island's place in the blue economy and not see the role the Navy plays. Two entities − the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, the Navy's submarine research and development laboratory, and General Dynamics Electric Boat, builder of the nation's nuclear submarine force, are global leaders.
"Rhode Island is a very big player," said Molly Donohue Magee, chief executive of SENEDIA, a defense industry group for Southern New England. "A lot of ocean tech, undersea tech is related to submarines."
The Rhode Island defense industry cluster that grew up around submarine building, coupled with research at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography, prime Rhode Island to stand out in the blue economy, even outside the defense sector.
Magee said that workforce development programs targeted at supporting the submarine industry also cultivate job skills that can transfer to the broader blue economy. "There's a lot of dual-use application for technology that's developed for undersea," she said.
"Rhode Island is the Ocean State," Magee observed, adding that it only follows "that we are a key to ocean and undersea tech."
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: 'Blue economy' is driving innovation in RI, from subs to seagliders
