CIMC Has Completed a New Project: The Delivery of BOREAS, the World’s Largest and Latest Generation Offshore Wind Installation Vessel

On January 8, CIMC Raffles, a subsidiary of CIMC Group, held a delivery ceremony for BOREAS, the world’s largest and latest generation offshore wind installation vessel, built for Van Oord, a Dutch company, at its Yantai base. This achievement has injected new momentum into the global offshore wind power industry, demonstrating China’s strong strength in the field of high-end marine equipment manufacturing.

It is reported that BOREAS, as the world’s largest and latest generation of self-elevating and self-propelled offshore wind installation vessel, features a length of 176 meters, a beam of 63 meters, and a maximum working water depth of 80 meters. The vessel has a maximum jacking capacity of 55,000 tons, a deck area exceeding 7,000 square meters, a main crane with a lifting capacity of 3,310 tons, and a crane boom height of 155 meters. As a result, the vessel is capable of installing 25 MW offshore wind turbines. Among its key specifications, such as main dimensions, lifting capacity and jacking capacity, BOREAS ranks first among similar vessels.

At the same time, to meet the clean and environmentally friendly emissions requirements, BOREAS is equipped with methanol storage tanks and five methanol dual-fuel main engines, which can reduce its carbon footprint by more than 78%. In addition, the vessel will be equipped with a selective catalytic reduction unit to minimize nitrogen oxide emissions, which can improve energy efficiency and reduce operational fuel consumption.

It is worth mentioning that during the project construction process, CIMC Raffles achieved many highlights and innovations while smoothly fulfilling the delivery goals through the formulation and implementation of measures such as process optimization, special plan management, regional management and team management.

As the world’s first project that truly realizes hybrid power of oil and electricity, the battery system has achieved a breakthrough in being able to fully cover the functions of one main engine for the first time. After delivery, the project will be deployed in European wind farms, specifically for the transportation and installation of the next generation of offshore wind turbines and foundations.

Currently, the global wind power industry is in a period of rapid growth. CIMC Raffles, as a leading provider of offshore engineering equipment in China, has been deeply involved in the offshore wind power field for several years and has leading advantages in offshore wind power equipment manufacturing, wind farm resource development, transportation and installation, etc. Royal Van Oord is a Dutch family-owned company with more than 155 years of history and original marine engineering technology expertise as an international marine contractor specializing in river dredging, offshore wind installation, and oil and gas infrastructure construction.

CIMC Raffles actively collaborates with upstream and downstream partners in the industrial chain to jointly build a new cooperation order for offshore wind power. Through practical actions, it promotes the realization of grid parity for offshore wind power at a faster pace and helps achieve the “3060” goal as soon as possible. Looking forward, CIMC Raffles will continue to seize the opportunities and actively promote the offshore clean energy strategy, contributing “CIMC’s strength” to fulfilling the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality and facilitating the global green and low-carbon transformation.