Nexans wins cable contract for Ørsted’s 1.4 GW offshore wind project in the North Sea

Nexans has been awarded a contract worth over EUR150 million (US$171.7 million) to supply over 200 km of 245 kV cross-linked polyethylene insulated (XLPE) near shore export cable system for Ørsted’s Hornsea 2 project.

Located approximately 89 km off the Yorkshire coast, the project involves installation of up to 300 turbines of between 6 MW and 15 MW. The project uses SG 8.0-167 DD wind turbines. The wind farm, which is the sister project to Hornsea 1, will provide enough electricity to power over 1.3 million homes. Ørsted is now constructing the project, with completion set for 2022.

To bring the electricity produced by the windfarm onshore, the project will be equipped with Nexans three-core HVAC submarine cables. These 245 kV XLPE cables will be part of the near shore section of the export circuits linking the wind farm’s reactive power substation to the onshore substation. The circuits will comprise three individual near shore export cables and will follow a similar route to Hornsea 1, for which Nexans Germany has earlier supplied 139 km of three-phase 36 kV subsea cable inter-linking a total of 58 wind turbines and connecting them to the offshore transformer station. The route will make landfall at Horseshoe Point from where land cables will feed the power to North Killingholme onshore substation.

These cables for Hornsea 2 project will be manufactured at Nexans Norway site in Halden.