Neptune Marine awards construction of innovative vessel
Impression of sail-assisted Canopée (Source: Jifmar)
Dutch shipyard Neptune Marine has been selected by Jifmar Guyane to build a new type of freighter with sail-assisted power to transport sections of space rockets. The 121m-long vessel, Canopée, will be equipped with four 30m-high sails from the company Oceanwings.
The ship will transport Ariane space rockets from Europe to the launch site in French Guyana in South America. By support of the Oceanwings sail panels, which will cover an area of 375sq.m each, around 35% on fuel consumption should be saved compared to conventional vessels.
French operator of the vessel, Alizés, said the Canopée is a prototype, but it is not clear how many ships in total will be built. Alizés is a joint venture between the French shipping companies Jifmar Offshore Services and Zéphyr et Borée set up especially for this project. It won the Ariane Group’s tender a year ago for a new transport concept for environmentally friendly ocean transport. Jifmar said that the ship is built in both the Netherlands and Poland, where Neptune Marine shipyards are located.
Detailed engineering studies have been on their way with hull tank-testing scheduled for the coming weeks. The laying of the keel will follow in the second quarter of 2021, while Alizés is going to take delivery of the vessel at the end of 2022 after a series of tests. Once delivered, the ship will load components of the Ariane 6 launcher in Bremen, Rotterdam, Le Havre, Bordeaux and Livourne. The Ariane 6 is the sixth generation of European space launchers, which have launched satellites for decades from the Kourou launch site in French Guyana.
Mr Nils Joyeux of Zephyr et Borée, said the travel restrictions caused by the corona pandemic played a role in the decision to build the Canopée in Europe. “The option of a European shipyard secures this project in the context of uncertainty generated by the Covid-19 and its repercussions,” he said. Until the virus outbreak, the group had been in talks with shipyards in Asia and Sri Lanka, among others.
