Japanese company Shimizu Corporation has started construction of a jack-up vessel designed to install offshore wind turbines of up to 12MW.
The vessel will be 142 metres long, 50 metres wide, have total tonnage of 28,000 tonnes and have lifting capacity of 2500 tonnes to heights of 158 metres.
It will have the capacity work in water depths of 10 to 65 metres, Shimizu said.
The company has worked with GustoMSC on the design of the vessel, while Japan Marine United Corporation will carry out the construction.
Shimizu will work in cooperation with Fukada Salvage Construction on the operations management of the ship, which is expected to be completed in October 2022.
The company added that at present there is no ship that can install 8MW-plus turbines in Japan and the new vessel will provide it with an opportunity to win EPC orders in the future, rather than charter European vessels.