Jan de Nul orders second next-generation offshore installation vessel

Jan De Nul Group has ordered a floating installation crane vessel from the China Merchants Heavy Industry Haimen shipyard in China. It is the second such vessel the Luxembourg-based dredging and offshore service company has ordered in six months.

The latest vessel, to be named Les Alizés, is scheduled to be delivered in 2022 and will have a crane with a lifting capacity of 5,000 tonnes. It will have a deck loading capacity of 61,000 tonnes and a deck space of 9,300m². The specialised vessel will mainly be used for the construction of offshore wind farms, but the powerful crane will also be suitable for decommissioning offshore oil and gas platforms. It will be able to load out, transport and install several units of the largest and heaviest wind turbine foundations at the same time.
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.

This vessel investment is a response to the global trend within the offshore wind energy sector to design and install increasingly larger wind turbines. This new generation of turbine can be more than 270m high, with blades up to 120m long and sit on foundations up to 2,500 tonnes.