Jan De Nul Orders Revolutionary Vessel Voltaire
Jan De Nul Group orders the Voltaire, its third Offshore Jack-Up Installation Vessel, at COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry in China. With an unrivalled crane capacity of over 3,000t, this jack-up vessel will be able to support the renewable energy industry to build the future windfarms at sea. The vessel is set to be delivered in 2022.
The global offshore wind industry is developing the next generation of offshore wind turbines. These turbines can be more than 270m high and are fitted with blades of 120m long. Offshore installation vessels currently available on the market are facing increasing difficulties to install these types of turbines due to the turbines’ sizes and installation heights, as well as the ever-increasing foundation dimensions. Not only will this vessel be ready for the future of offshore renewables, the Voltaire will also be deployable for the oil & gas industry, and for decommissioning of offshore structures.
The Voltaire will be environmentally compliant by taking the same highly advanced emission control technology on board as all other Ultra-Low Emission vessels in the Jan De Nul fleet. The latest generation of Jan De Nul vessels are equipped with a filtering technique for exhaust gases which complies with the stricter European land and inland waterways emission regulations EURO STAGE V. Jan De Nul Group designed the Voltaire running on gasoil but fitted with a highly advanced exhaust gas filtering system by means of a Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) system and a Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF). Jan De Nul already applied this pioneering emission control technology on two trailing suction hopper dredgers and three more, currently under construction. The Voltaire will be the very first seagoing installation vessel of its kind to be such an Ultra-Low Emission vessel (ULEv) and, moreover, EURO STAGE V certified.
The Offshore Jack-Up Installation Vessel is named after the French writer, historian and philosopher François-Marie Arouet, known by his pseudonym Voltaire and as an icon of the European Enlightenment of the 18th Century. Both Voltaire and our Jack-Up Vessel are pioneering within their field of expertise.