An offshore wind farm in the North Sea. Photo courtesy of Harald Pettersen/Statoil/CC BY-2.0.
An offshore wind farm planned to send renewable energy into Connecticut’s power grid got a boost from Westerly, Rhode Island-based Washington Trust Co. earlier this week when the bank finalized a loan for an undisclosed amount that will fund three vessels needed to build and maintain the development.
The 88-foot crew transfer ships WindServe plans to commission from Rhode Island shipbuilder Senesco Marine will support the construction of the first 12 turbines at wind power company Ørsted’s Southfork Wind project off of Long Island before pivoting to help maintain the larger Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind project being developed in cooperation with Connecticut and Rhode Island, in the former case, and New York State, in the latter case.
Wasington Trust landed the deal with WindServe parent company Reinaur Group after an unspecified “large national bank headquartered in Rhode Island” passed on the opportunity, spokesperson Colleen Wickwire said in an email to The Commecial Record. Reinaur had a preexisting deposit relationship with Washington Trust which, combined with the company’s preference for a local lender given its intent to buy its ships from Sensco Marine, caused WindServe to reach out to the bank.
While Washington Trust has a long history financing Rhode Island’s fishing fleets, the bank didn’t approach underwriting the deal any differently from a loan for a large piece of land-based equipment or other capital investment, said chief commercial lending officer Anthony Botelho.
“We have a very disciplined approach,” he said in an interview with The Commercial Record
While the loan was not part of a “grandiose plan to get into the blue economy,” Botelho said, and the bank didn’t see a need to develop additional expertise in the wind industry to underwrite the loan, Washington Trust plans to watch the sector for more lending opportunities as it develops.
“We’re small enough that we can pivot if it feels like there is a better growth opportunity elsewhere,” he said.
The loan is one of the first that will support the growth of a network of construction and maintenance firms and a local supply chain for a wind industry that is still in its infancy. Only one wind farm, the five-turbine experimental Block Island Wind Farm, is currently operational, although 40 gigawatts of generating capacity are at various stages of development and officials in New England and New York hope to generate as much as 20 percent of America’s electricity demand from offshore wind by 2030.
