Belgian offshore entrepreneur Jan De Nul has launched his largest jack-up vessel to date at the COSCO Shipping shipyard in Nantong, China, which is said to be as tall as the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Appointed Voltaire, the installation vessel for offshore renewable energy and oil and gas dismantling is to be delivered in the second half of 2022.
Designed in-house Voltaire is built to transport, lift and install next generation offshore wind turbines, transition pieces and foundations. The jackup features a main crane with a capacity of over 3,000 tonnes and four giant 130m legs that support the vessel to achieve stable working conditions in unrivaled water depths of up to 80m and with a high load of 16,000 tons.
Compared to Jan De Nul’s other jack-up vessel, Vole In The Wind, this new vessel has almost double the deck space. In addition to being able to load the next generation of wind turbines and foundations, the larger deck space will also allow Jan De Nul to optimize offshore installations and reduce fuel consumption and emissions, a explained the company, adding that the Voltaire will also be able to run on second generation biodiesel which reduces the fuel’s carbon footprint by up to 90%.
Jan De Nul commissioned the world’s tallest jack-up installation vessel next to the floating installation vessel Trade winds in 2019. According to the company, the duo will be the first in the world with an extremely low carbon footprint equipped with a highly advanced dual exhaust filter system, removing up to 99% of nanoparticles from emissions using a diesel particulate filter (DPF) and the reduction of NOx and other pollutant emissions by means of a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system to levels complying with European Stage V regulations.
“With unparalleled lifting capacities of over 3,000 tonnes and 5,000 tonnes respectively, as well as Jan De Nul’s existing submarine cable laying trio, these vessels will have the capacity to lay all the requirements of the next-generation offshore wind farm. Today it is clearer than ever that Jan De Nul made the right decision by ordering the Voltaire and Trade winds in 2019,” the company said in a statement.
“The Voltaire will allow us to work in deeper waters and reach ever higher nacelle heights than before. To add Voltaire and Trade winds to the fleet gives us the perfect set of vessels to execute the growing number of large-scale, clustered international offshore wind projects,” added Philippe Hutse, Director of the Offshore Division at Jan De Nul.
The vessel is set to mobilize in the UK for the construction of the 3.6GW Dogger Bank Offshore Wind Farm, the largest offshore wind farm in the world, transporting and installing a total of 277 GE Haliade-X turbines up to 14MW .
