Over the past year, Maersk, a subsidiary of Danish shipping and oil giant A.P. Moller-Maersk, has mainly made headline through its aggressive purchase of large container ships at a time when the shipping industry as a whole is in the doldrums.
After putting the world’s largest containership it operation (with a capacity of 14,000 20-foot equivalent unit TEU containers, TEUs being the standard measurement in container shipping), the company order 20 new Triple-E class vessels from South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co.
Currently, the industry standard is vessels that carry about 13,500 TEUs. The new Triple-E’s have a capacity of 18,000 TEUs.
Now Maersk is embarking on an entirely different kind of journey, with its American division, based in Norfolk in the US state of Virginia, partnering with Apex Offshore Wind, a subsidiary of another Virginia-based firm, Apex Wind Energy Holdings LLC of Charlottesville.
Together the partners will work on developing, financing and building utility-scale offshore wind facilities off the US coast.
“[Maersk Line] has chosen to partner with Apex Offshore Wind to speed the process of bringing offshore wind to North America,” said Greg Moore, Vice President of Business Development at the shipping line.
“In Apex, we’ve found a partner that shares our values and entrepreneurial spirit, and that is committed to bringing this promising new energy resource to the continent,” Moore said.
The Apex Offshore Wind management team has been working to develop offshore wind energy projects in North America for over nine years.
Apex sees significant potential for the industry’s growth and supports the US government’s vision of an offshore wind energy sector capable of providing 54 GW of clean domestic energy by 2030.
Tim Ryan, President of Apex Offshore Wind believes that “to meet these ambitious goals, the rapid growth of the offshore wind energy industry in North American will require maritime players with significant experience, scale and resources, and a reputation for quality, responsibility, and safety. Maersk Line, Limited brings all of those vital elements into this collaboration.”
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