Jan De Nul has kicked off construction of its 5000-tonne crane vessel Les Alizes with a steel cutting ceremony today at the shipyard China Merchants Heavy Industry in China.
Les Alizes will mainly be used for the construction of offshore wind farms, but the vessel’s powerful crane will make it suitable for decommissioning offshore oil and gas platforms.
Jan De Nul said that because of the vessel’s dimensions, as well as lifting and loading capacities, Les Alizes will be able to load out, transport and install multiple units of the largest and heaviest foundations.
In addition, as a crane vessel that floats, it will be able to install heavier and larger foundations into deeper waters and in more challenging seabed conditions, the company said.
Les Alizes will feature a main crane of 5000 tonnes, a deck loading capacity of 61,000 tonnes and a deck space of 9300 metres squared. s equipped with a high-performance DP2 system.
The vessel will also be equipped with an exhaust gas filtering technology that removes up to 99% of nanoparticles from emissions using a diesel particulate filter followed by selective catalytic reduction system for NOx removal.
It will be fitted with an energy storage system, forming a hybrid setup together with the main diesel engines.
The ESS will compensate power peaks on the main engines and recover energy from the heavy lift crane, resulting in optimised engine operation and less fuel consumption and emissions, Jan De Nul said.