First steel plates cut for Les Alizés

Jan De Nul kicks off the construction of its 5,000 tonnes crane vessel Les Alizés. The steel cutting ceremony took place today at the shipyard China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd. in China, in the presence of Jan De Nul representatives, the Vice General Manager of the shipyard and the Country Chief Executive of M&O China of Bureau Veritas.

After thirteen months of preparation, designing and planning, the project teams of both the Shipyard and Jan De Nul Group are happy to reach this first important milestone.

Les Alizés will mainly be used for the construction of offshore wind farms, but with her powerful crane, she is also extremely suitable for decommissioning offshore oil and gas platforms. Thanks to her dimensions and impressive lifting and loading capacities, Les Alizés will be able to load out, transport and install multiple units of the largest and heaviest wind turbine foundations. In addition, as a crane vessel that floats, it will be able to install heavier and larger foundations into deeper waters and in more challenging seabed conditions.

Impressive lifting and loading capacity

Les Alizés is specifically designed for loading, transporting, lifting and installing offshore wind turbine foundations. The main features are a main crane of 5,000 tons, a deck loading capacity of 61,000 tons and a deck space of 9,300 m². With these characteristics, Les Alizés 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.

Unlike Jan De Nul’s other offshore installation vessel under construction Voltaire, Les Alizés does not have four legs to lift itself above the sea surface. It is a crane vessel for floating installation, which means that the vessel is not dependent on the water depths and the seabed conditions. Les Alizés is equipped with a high-performance DP2 system.

Image: Jan De Nul

Green technology and innovations on board

Les Alizés will be equipped with an exhaust gas filtering technology that complies with the strict European EURO STAGE V guidelines for emissions on land and inland waterways. This highly advanced dual exhaust filter system removes up to 99% of nanoparticles from emissions using a diesel particulate filter (DPF) followed by selective catalytic reduction system (SCR) for NOx removal.

Additionally, the crane vessel will be fitted with an Energy Storage System (ESS), forming a hybrid setup together with the main diesel engines. This ESS will compensate power peaks on the main engines and recover energy from the heavy lift crane, resulting in optimised engine operation and less fuel consumption and emissions.

And finally, Les Alizés will have a Cleanship NDO7 label and a Green Passport EU label. The Cleanship label confirms that the vessel checks and minimizes the waste water and all other residual waste. The second Green Passport label means that all materials and hazardous substances are mapped out during the construction phase, in order to facilitate the recycling of the vessel when decommissioned. Both certificates are issued by a specialized external agency.