In parallel to the growth of offshore wind turbines, installation vessels have also had to grow.

This has led to significant investments in new installation vessels, such as in the case of the Belgian company Jan de Nul, which has commissioned the construction of the largest wind turbine installation vessel (jack-up vessel) in the world, the Voltaire, in China.

The Voltaire was built at the COSCO Shipping Shipyard in Nantong (China), and with a maximum height of 325 meters, it is the tallest wind turbine installation vessel in the world.

Main characteristics (link to technical sheet)

Length: 169.3 meters

Beam: 60.0 meters

Draft: 7.5 meters

Installed power: 24.8 MW

Speed: 11.5 knots

Loading capacity: 14,000 tons

The Voltaire is being used to install the Haliade X turbines at the Dogger Bank wind farm in the United Kingdom.

As always, the size of these things is best understood when compared to the Eiffel Tower.

By the way, the Spanish company Ingeteam was in charge of designing the entire electrical system and the various control systems of the vessel. More information about the vessel can be found here.

Interestingly, just as I had finished writing this news, Windpowermonthly published that a ship with the capacity to install 26 MW wind turbines has just been launched in China. We will analyze it in future Windletter editions.