Only six months after announcing its decision to invest in the offshore installation vessel Voltaire, Jan De Nul has ordered another, a crane vessel, to be named Les Alizés, that will be built by CMHI Haimen shipyard in China
Les Alizés will be ready for operation in 2022 and will be fitted with a crane with a lifting capacity of 5,000 tonnes. The vessel will mainly be used to construct offshore windfarms, but will also be suitable for use in decommissioning projects in the offshore oil and gas sector.
Les Alizés will be able to load out, transport and install multiple wind turbine foundations and, being a floating unit rather than a jack-up, will be able to install next-generation, heavy, large foundations in deep water.
Jan De Nul described the vessel as a response to the trend in the offshore wind energy sector to design and install increasingly larger turbines. “This new generation of turbines can be more than 270 m high, with blades up to 120 m long, with foundations of up to 2,500 tonnes,” the company said, noting that existing installation vessels “are experiencing great difficulty installing these new turbines and their foundations.”
Jan De Nul offshore director Philippe Hutse said, “We continue to invest in the future of offshore renewable energy. By ordering Les Alizés, we will ensure that from 2022 we will have not one, but two, offshore installation vessels that will be able to install the newest generation of offshore windfarms.
“Similar to Voltaire, we have financed this investment by means of a green loan, thanks to the green emissions reduction technology on board the vessel. During the design phase, as is the case for all our new vessels, we studied very carefully the environmental impact and the solutions to minimise that impact.”
Apart from a crane with a capacity of 5,000 tonnes, the vessel will have a deck loading capacity of 61,000 tonnes and a deck space of 9,300 m². Les Alizés will also have a high-performance DP2 dynamic positioning system.
The vessel will have exhaust gas filtering technology that complies with Euro Stage V guidelines for emissions on land and inland waterways. The diesel particulate filter will be complemented by a selective catalytic reduction system to remove NOx. As a result, Les Alizés and Voltaire will be the first installation vessels in the world with extremely low emissions and with Euro Stage V certification.
Les Alizés will also have a Cleanship NDO7 label and a Green Passport EU label.
Crane designer and manufacturer Huisman has confirmed that it has been awarded a contract for the design, engineering, construction and delivery of the 5,000-tonne crane for the ship. The tub mounted crane will be built at Huisman’s production facility in Xiamen, China and installed at the shipyard. The crane is due to be delivered in 2021.
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