$200m vessel ordered to help kickstart Japan’s OSW

The self-propelled vessel will be suitable for multi-purpose applications such as ground-based foundation work, floating offshore wind mooring work, and other marine projects, Vard says.

The 150m x 28m vessel will feature a four-point mooring system and helideck and have a cable carrying capacity of 9,000 tonnes.

Vard says its hull has been designed specifically for the conditions in which it will work – ie both shallow and deep waters for floating offshore wind power generation and DC power transmission projects.

The vessel is prepared for Inter-array, HVAC export and interconnector cable lay as well as cable burial operation and construction work.

“We are happy to present this vessel to Toyo,” said Torgeir Haugan, SVP Sales & Marketing with Vard.

“The cable layer is a modern and complex vessel of high standards built according to Japanese regulations primarily for the Japanese offshore wind farm and international market.”

The vessel will be Toyo’s largest work vessel so far, and indeed the offshore wind industry in Japan as a whole is still fairly fledgling though very ambitious.

According to offshore wind market analyst 4COffshore, of its 178 planned projects, there are ‘none where construction has progressed enough to connect the turbines and generate electricity, 3 are in the build phase, and 3 are either consented or have applied for consent’.