The new joint venture will strategically combine Crowley’s end-to-end maritime and logistics capabilities with Morgan Stanley Investment Management expertise to promote offshore wind energy solutions for the US.
Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM), through Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners (MSIP), has partnered with maritime, energy and logistics solutions leader Crowley to develop the U.S. offshore wind energy industry.
Investment funds managed by MSIP will hold a majority stake in a new joint venture Crowley Wind Services Holdings, while Crowley will operate the business.
The partners will repurpose and operate existing U.S. port facilities, as well as lease them under long-term contracts to offshore wind developers. It is expected that the terminals will support the manufacturing, assembly and storage of wind farm components as well as provide developers with maritime services e.g. using feedering vessels to transport components from ports to offshore wind installations.
To begin with, Crowley plans to begin construction of the Salem Wind Services Terminal this fall. It will support the development and operation of offshore wind lease areas off the northeast U.S. coast. The terminal will be built in partnership with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Clean Energy Center and the City of Salem, Massachusetts.
The proposed site is 42 acres of waterfront property in a Designated Port Area of Salem Harbor. Most recently, the property was the site of a 750-megawatt (MW) coal and oil-fired power plant. Now, the area will be redesignated to cleaner energy production providing new heavy-lift deployment and logistics services for offshore wind operations.
The company already has plans for other US regions too. Besides pursuing the development of a U.S. West Coast terminal in Eureka, California, Crowley also has a right-of-first refusal agreement to lease and potentially develop a wind services terminal at Port Fourchon, Louisiana.
“In our view, the U.S. offshore wind industry is in its early stages with ambitious goals to develop 30 gigawatts of capacity from offshore wind by 2030 and unlock a pathway to 110 gigawatts by 2050. We believe port infrastructure is essential to the build-out and long-term maintenance of offshore wind projects and we are excited to partner with Crowley to provide the foundational infrastructure that will enable the development of this important industry.”
Daniel Sailors, Managing Director, MSIP
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