Shimizu’s “BLUE WIND”, World’s Largest Class SEP Vessel Completes

Construction of the self-propelled SEP vessel commissioned by Shimizu Corporation (President: Kazuyuki Inoue) with a 50-billion-yen investment and undertaken by Japan Marine United Corporation (President: Kotaro Chiba; JMU) was recently completed. It features world’s largest class loading and crane capacities. The SEP vessel christened “BLUE WIND” and the name unveiled at the christening ceremony held on today at a shipyard, JMU AMTEC Co., Ltd (Aioi City, Hyogo) where she is currently anchored. After four months of various tests and training for engineers and crew, BLUE WIND will be used in the construction of offshore wind farms, a market worth more than 5 trillion yen, and is expected to deliver outstanding performance in the construction of offshore wind turbines.

The christening ceremony was attended by the presidents and other personnel from Shimizu, JMU, AMTEC, and FUKADA SALVAGE & MARINE WORKS CO., LTD., which has been tapped for operational control. After the christening and unveiling by President Inoue, the completion of the vessel was celebrated with a rope cutting ceremony, as is customary in the shipbuilding industry. The name reflects our desire for the SEP vessel, which bears our corporate color, to travel over the ocean like the wind and dominate the offshore wind farm construction market.

Featuring world-leading operational performance, in its completed form, BLUE WIND is 50 meters wide and 142 meters long, with a gross tonnage of 28,000 tons, a maximum crane lifting capacity of 2,500 tons, and a maximum lifting height of 158 meters. It will be operational in depths ranging from 10 to 65 meters, and it will have four legs penetrated into sea bed during operation. Moreover, it will be insulated from the ocean surface by jacking up the hull, ensuring stable and anattected by waves operations. The SEP vessel can carry all of the parts for 7 units 8 MW wind turbines, or 3 units 12 MW wind turbines in their full size, so it will demonstrate particularly outstanding performance in the construction of large wind turbines. The design will also enable the vessel to be jacked up and down during the 10-second-long wave（swell） that are characteristic of the Pacific Ocean, to achieve much higher operational efficiency than existing SEP vessels.

Tomorrow, BLUE WIND will depart from the AMTEC shipyard and travel the Shikoku coastal waters clockwise while various tests are conducted. On October 20, she will arrive in the waters of Hiroshima. The plan is to conduct various tests, including jacking the hull up and down and operating the crane, and training for engineers and crew in the Seto Inland Sea for four months. In March 2023, she will first be used for construction of 3 units of 3 MW wind turbines offshore from Nyuzen-machi, Toyama where Venti Japan Inc. is planning an offshore wind farm. After that she will head to Hokkaido, and in June 2023, rigging will take place at Muroran Port. Then head to Ishikari Bay New Port, which will be one of the largest commercial offshore wind farms, and first 8 MW wind turbines in Japan, that Green Power Investment Corporation has been working on development of this project since 2007, will begin construction in July.

Offshore wind farm construction projects will be starting in earnest all over Japan as the last-ditch for the switch to renewable energy in response to the Japanese government’s 2050 Carbon Neutrality Declaration. Large-scale offshore wind farm construction projects are also starting one right after another in Europe, the United States, and Asia. For that reason, there is robust demand for SEP vessels worldwide, and we have received requests from power companies both in Japan and abroad using BLUE WIND in their projects. By steadily capturing this demand, we aim to become a major player in the construction of offshore wind farms.