Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM), through Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners (MSIP), and Crowley have announced the creation of a new joint venture to advance offshore wind energy solutions for the USA.
The joint venture will combine Crowley’s end-to-end maritime and logistics capabilities through the newly created Crowley Wind Services Holdings and the financial strength and expertise of MSIP. Investment funds managed by MSIP, a private infrastructure fund platform within MSIM, will hold a majority stake in Crowley Wind Services Holdings, while Crowley will operate the business. MSIP and Crowley’s partnership will focus on repurposing and operating existing U.S. port facilities and leasing them under long-term contracts to offshore wind developers. The terminals will support manufacturing, assembly and storage of wind farm components as well as provide developers with maritime services such as Jones Act-compliant feedering vessels to transport components from ports to offshore wind installations.
Through a public-private partnership with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Clean Energy Center and the City of Salem, Massachusetts, Crowley plans to begin construction this fall on the Salem Wind Services Terminal, which will support the development and operation of offshore wind lease areas off the northeast U.S. coast. In addition, the company is pursuing the development of a U.S. West Coast terminal in Eureka, California, in a public-private partnership. Crowley also has a right-of-first refusal agreement to lease and potentially develop a wind services terminal at Port Fourchon, Louisiana.
