Jan De Nul and China Merchant Heavy Industry (CMHI) have laid the keel for floating installation crane vessel Les Alizés.
The construction of the heavy-lift crane vessel began in December 2020 at the CMHI Haimen shipyard in China.
Les Alizés is specifically designed for loading, transporting, lifting, and installing offshore wind turbine foundations. It will be capable of building the newest generation of wind farms once delivered in 2022, and is also suitable for decommissioning offshore oil & gas platforms.
Main features include a main crane of 5,000 tons, a deck loading capacity of 61,000 tons, a deck space of 9,300 m², as well as 6 × MAN 12V32/44CR main engines .
SCHOTTEL will provide a full propulsion package and Red Rock will supply three knuckle telescopic offshore cranes.
The vessel will be equipped with an advanced dual exhaust filter system said to remove up to 99% of nanoparticles from emissions using a diesel particulate filter (DPF) followed by a selective catalytic reduction system (SCR), as well as an onboard Energy Storage System optimizing engine operation and reducing fuel consumption and emissions, Jan De Nul said.