Maritime services company Crowley has formed a new joint venture with investment banking giant Morgan Stanley to prepare US ports for the country’s coming offshore wind boom.
The partners plan to repurpose and operate existing port facilities and then lease them under long-term contracts to offshore wind developers through their joint venture Crowley Wind Services Holdings.
They have set their sights on operating ports off the east and west coasts of the US, as well as on the Gulf of Mexico.
Investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners will hold a majority stake in the new venture, while Crowley will operate the business.
They aim to make their ports capable of supporting the manufacturing, assembly and storage of wind farm components. The partners also plan to provide vessels to transport components from ports to wind farms that are compliant with the Jones Act, which requires vessels operating in US waters to be US-flagged.
Crowley plans to start construction of an offshore wind services terminal in Salem, Massachusetts this autumn.
It is also pursuing development of a terminal in Eureka, California, and has a right-of-first refusal agreement to lease and potentially develop a wind services terminal at Port Fourchon, Louisiana.
Daniel Sailors, managing director at Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners pointed to an expected boom in offshore wind development in the US, as developers seek to fulfil the Biden administration’s target of 30GW of capacity by 2030.
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