Van Oord orders green cable-laying vessel for offshore wind market

The vessel will be delivered by Vard in Norway and equipped with what the Dutch owner described as “the latest sustainable technologies.” It will be operational in 2023.

The company said the investment is part of Van Oord’s strategy to strengthen its position in the fast-growing offshore wind market. The new vessel is designed to have a reduced carbon footprint while in operation and in port.

Apart from being able to operate on biofuel, the hybrid vessel will have ‘future fuel ready’ main engines with the ability to make use other types of fuels.

It will also have a large battery pack, a shore supply connection and a sophisticated energy management system. This will result in an energy-efficient vessel with reduced CO₂, NOx and SOx emissions.

Van Oord chief executive Pieter Van Oord said, “Van Oord is committed to reducing CO₂ emissions to become carbon-neutral by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement. This investment emphasises our commitment to net-zero emissions.”

Vard chief executive Alberto Maestrini said, “We appreciate the excellent co-operation established between Van Oord and Vard’s project team to enable the development of this innovative vessel.”

The new dynamic positioning class DP2 vessel will be equipped with a below-deck cable carousel and a second carousel on deck, with total cable-carrying capacity of 8,000 tonnes.

The vessel will mainly be deployed on inter-array and export cable-lay projects for offshore windfarms. It will also be able to install high voltage direct current cables. Van Oord’s cable trenchers will also operate from it.

The company already operates the cable-lay vessel Nexus. Van Oord said the new ship’s intelligent cable-lay control system will be a further evolution from that on Nexus.

The vessel will be 130 m in length with a breadth of 28 m and will be Dutch flagged.