Nexans wins major power export cable contract for Ørsted’s Hornsea 2 wind farm

Today, many nations are harnessing renewable energy sources with the aim of counteracting climate change, one of the world’s biggest challenges. In 2017, Europe installed 16.8 GW of additional wind power capacity making it the second largest form of power generation in the region. One of the latest most prominent wind power developments is Ørsted’s Hornsea 2 project, for which Nexans has been awarded a contract worth over 150 million euros to supply over 200 km of 245 kV cross-linked polyethylene insulated (XLPE) near shore export cable system.

Located in the North Sea, approximately 89 km from the Yorkshire coast, the 1.4 GW offshore wind farm will be the world’s largest once it starts operating. 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 Norway 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.

“ For the last decades, Nexans has been a key actor in the offshore wind market, known for its technical leadership in providing turnkey cabling solutions for new generations of offshore wind farms. Building on our expertise and long-standing partnership with Ørsted, we are delighted to contribute to the construction of the world’s largest offshore wind farm,” says Vincent Dessale, Senior Executive VP Subsea and Land Systems Business Group at Nexans.

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