A keel laying ceremony was held for Cadeler’s first X-class wind turbine installation vessel at COSCO Shipping Heavy Industries’ shipyard in Qidong, China.
The vessel is the first of two that Cadeler has ordered from COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry under a contract signed with the company in June 2021.
The vessels will be equipped with a crane from Huisman and will be able to transport and install seven complete 15 MW wind turbine sets per load, or five sets of 20+ MW units, according to the Danish service provider.
Each ship, outfited with a MAN engine , will have a deck space of 5,600 square metres, a payload of over 17,600 tonnes, and a main crane capacity of above 2,000 tonnes at 53 metres.
According to the previous news, its first X-class vessel would be used for the transport and installation of 100 Siemens Gamesa 14 MW wind turbines at the Sofia offshore wind farm in the UK, owned by RWE.
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The first vessel is planned to be ready for service in 2024 while the second one is scheduled to be delivered a year later.
Apart from the X-class vessels, COSCO is also building two F-class wind turbine installation vessels for Cadeler, under a contract signed with the company in November of last year.
The new F-class ship is expected to be delivered in the second half of 2026.