Jan de Nul’s NextGen heavy lift vessel Les Alizés is on her way to Europe, the company has announced.
The vessel, built at the CMHI Haimen Shipyard in China, has been specifically designed for loading, transporting, lifting and installing offshore wind turbine foundations. She will also be suitable for decommissioning oil and gas rigs. Her main features are a main crane of 5,000 tonnes, a deck loading capacity of 61,000 tonnes and a deck space of 9,300 m².
“With these characteristics, the vessel can easily transport the heavier future foundations, several in one trip, to the offshore installation site, with direct benefits in planning, fuel consumption and emissions reduction,” says Jan de Nul. “Les Alizés is a crane vessel for floating installation, which means that she is not dependent on the water depths or the seabed conditions.”
As wind farm turbines increase in height, with the new generation now more than 270 metres high with blades of up to 120 metres in length, increasingly larger installation vessels are now required, and Les Alizés seeks to address this demand.
The new vessel’s first mission, says Jan de Nul, will be in Germany, where she will be used to transport and install 107 monopile foundations and one offshore substation topside at Ørsted’s Gode Wind 3 and Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farm.
