Offshore installation specialist Jan De Nul Group said Tuesday that its flagship newbuild jack-up vessel, Voltaire, had left the COSCO Shipping Shipyard in China and was heading for Dubai.
The vessel was delivered by the shipyard on December 15, and departed from the shipyard on Tuesday morning.
"With her crane capacity of 3,000 tons, four immense legs of 130 meters, and capacity to lift 16,000 tons of useful cargo out of the water, Voltaire is the world’s tallest jack-up installation vessel," Jan De Nul said.
The vessel will be used for offshore wind installation and offshore decommissioning work.
Jan De Nul said in March that the Voltaire had been fitted with what it said was the world's largest leg encircling crane.
The Voltaire has been designed to install the offshore wind turbines of the future, with turbines over 270 meters high and blades 120 meters long.
The vessel will transport, hoist and install offshore wind turbines, transition pieces, and foundations.
For these lifting works, the vessel was equipped with a main crane of more than 3,000 tonnes.
For its first project, the jack-up will mobilize to the United Kingdom for the construction of the 3.6 GW Dogger Bank offshore wind farm, the world’s largest offshore wind farm, transporting and installing a total of 277 GE Haliade-X turbines of up to 14 MW.