Offshore Wind Energy Subsea Cables and Contracts

Liz Burdock, President & CEO, Business Network for Offshore Wind

One of our themes for this year has been “From Concepts to Contracts,” meaning that plans and long-term vision for the U.S. offshore wind energy supply chain are now turning into actual contracts between developers and suppliers, which is very exciting. Offshore wind farms offer great opportunities for economic development and job creation, and it all starts with developers signing contracts with manufacturers and suppliers.

We have some great examples in the cables sector of the U.S. offshore wind marketplace, with three significant deals coming together in just the last few months, and more on the way.

In Virginia, the two-turbine Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind farm (CVOW) project is under construction, and Seaway Offshore Cables, in cooperation with Subsea 7 US, was awarded the contract for the inner array grid (cabling between turbines) and export cable system of the wind farm (from the wind farm to land), totaling 29 miles of cable in all.

I like what Seaway’s project manager said about this contract: “We look forward to transferring our skills and expertise from European projects to the USA. Hereby the cooperation with our sister company Subsea 7 US, based in Houston, and the transfer of knowledge to the newly formed team of local suppliers and subcontractors will be a key aspect."  

In New England and New York, an agreement has been signed by Eversource, Nexans and Ørsted for more than 620 miles of subsea high voltage export cables for offshore wind farms off Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York. Even better, Nexans is investing in a U.S. facility in South Carolina that will manufacture the subsea high-voltage cables with a 10,000-ton capacity, with the first delivery of the cables expected by 2022.

Vincent Dessale, Senior Executive Vice President, Nexans Subsea and Land Systems Business Group said: “Our partnership with Ørsted and Eversource will accelerate the energy transition in North America and bring Nexans’ industry-leading subsea cable technology to the US.”

And in Massachusetts, developer Vineyard Wind, LLC has awarded Prysmian Group with a contract worth approximately 200 million euros to provide a submarine power cable system of more than 83 miles for the 800MW Vineyard Wind 1 project.

“This contract …reinforces our commitment to the North American offshore wind sector,” said Hakan Ozmen, EVP Projects, Prysmian Group. “The US offshore wind market is now demonstrating a high level of motivation with a promising growth forecast and we are excited to contribute to realizing this opportunity in the US market.” 

And there is much more to come, but it is imperative that we get this critical connection right from the start of our industry. This is why we are partnering with SubCableWorld to hold the first US conference focusing specifically on offshore wind cable supply chain issues in the United States on January 23, 2020, at the Houston Aquarium in Houston, Texas. You can click here to get more information on the conference.