DULUTH, Minn. — The oceangoing vessel Asian Spirit arrived today at the Duluth Seaway Port Authority’s Clure Public Marine Terminal with 39 wind turbine blades, completing a project that involved six voyages and more than 100,000 freight tons of wind energy cargo in 2025.
Her shipments contributed to a milestone summer—the 20th anniversary of wind energy cargo deliveries at North America’s farthest-inland seaport. The very first shipment arrived in April 2005, after years of development efforts by Lake Superior Warehousing and the Duluth Seaway Port Authority—a working partnership known as Duluth Cargo Connect. Since that first shipment, Duluth has welcomed more than 2.6 million freight tons of wind energy cargo, establishing itself as the leading midcontinent logistics hub for renewable energy components.
- In 2011, cumulative wind energy cargo shipments surpassed 1 million freight tons at the Clure Public Marine Terminal.
- In 2020, Duluth Cargo Connect handled a single-season record 525,000 freight tons of wind energy cargo. It arrived aboard 30 ships from eight countries on four continents.
- In 2024, Duluth Cargo Connect discharged the port’s longest blades ever: 260 feet in length.
- After arriving in Duluth on ships, via the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System, energy cargoes complete the final leg of their journey via truck or rail, a process expedited by Duluth’s award-winning road and rail clearances, plus crucial partnerships with MnDOT, WisDOT, the City of Duluth, St. Louis County, and state law enforcement agencies.
- Today’s shipment of wind energy cargo is destined for North Dakota, where the blades will repower previously installed turbines.
- The port’s history of handling energy cargo spans more than 150 years, starting with coal shipments in the 1870s and continuing today with inbound and outbound sailings of bulk and breakbulk cargoes—from conventional fuels to renewable energy components.
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More than 700 vessels and 30 million short tons of cargo move through the Port of Duluth-Superior each year, making it the Great Lakes’ largest tonnage port and one of the nation’s top 20. The port supports more than 7,000 jobs and contributes $1.3 billion in business revenue to the regional economy. Learn more at DuluthPort.com.