State’s second wind farm terminal expected in Salem

Within weeks if not days, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center is expected to acquire a site for the state’s second wind farm terminal in a deal that will help make the city of Salem a pivotal player in the nascent offshore wind industry. The quasi-public MassCEC is about to close on a $30 million deal to buy more than 42 acres overlooking Salem Harbor from an affiliate of Crowley, a Florida-based shipping company. The Crowley affiliate bought the Salem property — formerly used by a coal-fired power plant — in 2022 for that same sum with the intention of preparing it for wind farm staging, preassembly, and component storage. Crowley even had a lease lined up with wind farm developer Avangrid. Now, Crowley will remain the operator but will lease the facility from MassCEC. Given the large amount of public money going into developing the port, state officials decided it made more sense to have the property under state control. In 2022, the project was awarded a nearly $34 million federal grant, and then $75 million from a state-run ports infrastructure program. (Some of that money is being used by the MassCEC to buy the site.) Earlier this year, the city of Salem approved a property tax break worth $53.5 million over 20 years, an estimated 42 percent of what Crowley would have otherwise paid. Also as part of the plan, the city of Salem would own five acres of the site. Crowley Wind Services vice president Graham Tyson declined to say how much money his company is investing, although state officials have pegged the total private investment for the project at around $170 million. Tyson said Crowley hoped to close on the deal with MassCEC by the end of December or in January. The company aims to start work in 2024 and open the new port sometime in 2026. Among other things, the project involves fortifying the site for heavy machinery and equipment, building two new ship berths, and some dredging of the harbor channel. — JON CHESTO