De Nul acquires two giant ships

Already boasting wide-ranging works such as the construction of six new floodgates in the Panama Canal or the widening of the Suez Canal, in recent years the Belgian company has been called to participate in the installation of the largest offshore wind turbines in the world. The Jan De Nul Group has announced the commissioning of two new vessels to further strengthen its leadership in this segment.

The group from Aalst (Province of East Flanders) has just signed a new contract worth more than 1 billion dollars for the construction of a large wind farm off the coast of the State of Virginia in the United States. Demand for ever more efficient and therefore ever larger wind turbines at sea is increasing throughout the world.

This is because although the first wind farm built by Jan De Nul off the Belgian coast in 2016 comprised 79-meter high wind turbines with a rotor diameter of 112 meters, current requirements are moving towards 150-meter high turbines with a diameter of 242 meters.

After the Voltaire, a ship 169 meters long and 60 meters wide, it is now the turn of Les Alizés to be launched. 236 meters long and 52 meters wide, it is a floating crane ship that has the advantage of being able to lay foundations in very deep water.

Another strength is that these two ultramodern giant ships run on biofuel, which allows an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions.