Vessel and crane for offshore operations involving energy consuming equipment or tools

A crane for performing offshore operations involving energy consuming equipment, the crane comprising:

• a substructure;
• a boom, pivotally mounted on the substructure;
• a luffing assembly configured for luffing of the boom;
• a hoist assembly configured for hoisting and lowering an object including the energy consuming equipment, the hoist assembly comprising:
• one or more hoist winches;
• and
• one or more hoist cables driven by the one or more hoist winches;
• and
• a travelling block configured to releasably engage the object, in order to suspend the object underneath the travelling block, wherein the travelling block is suspended from a crown block on the boom via the one or more winch driven hoist cables of the hoist assembly,
• wherein the travelling block is provided with a rechargeable energy storage unit, the rechargeable energy storage unit being configured to store therein energy, wherein the rechargeable energy storage unit comprises an input connector and an output connector,
• wherein the travelling block is movable by employing the hoist assembly into a charging position and one or more supply positions remote from charging position,
• wherein when the travelling block is in the charging position, the input connector of the rechargeable energy storage unit is connectable to an output connector of an assigned energy charging unit in order to charge the rechargeable energy storage unit from a separate energy source that is assigned to the energy charging unit, and
• wherein when the travelling block is in one of the supply positions and the input connector of the rechargeable energy storage unit is disconnected from the output connector of the energy charging unit, the rechargeable energy storage unit is configured to supply energy stored therein to the energy consuming equipment which is configured to operate on said energy via the output connector of the rechargeable energy storage unit and an interconnected input connector of, or operatively connected to, said energy consuming equipment.