Germany’s Federal Minister of Economic Affairs and Technology, Dr. Philipp Rösler, visited the submarine cable manufacturer Norddeutsche Seekabelwerke GmbH (NSW) in Nordenham.
During the minister’s guided tour of the company’s facilities and factory, NSW’s Managing Director Rudolf Stahl showed him the production plant for submarine power cables, inaugurated in 2009. This state-of the-art factory, featuring the world’s biggest stranding and armoring lines, is one of numerous investments that have enabled the company to become a significant player on the offshore wind power market.
Minister Rösler emphasized the company’s major importance for the energy turnaround: “Upgrading the power grid is a crucial element in bringing about the energy turnaround we are targeting. In particular, offshore wind energy has been earmarked to constitute a vital mainstay of our energy supply mix. And so that our citizens can benefit from renewable electricity generated in the North and Baltic Seas, the offshore wind farms being built have to be reliably linked up to our transmission network. The submarine cables produced by Norddeutsche Seekabelwerke make an important contribution in this regard.”
Since 2007, the American parent company General Cable had invested around 80 million euros in production and transportation, plus installation capacities. Just last month, the installation ship MV Aura, modified for cable-laying and chartered for five years, and the new NSW ® SeaREX heavy-duty trencher, went into service.
To quote Rudolf Stahl, Managing Director of NSW : “We as a company have put ourselves in a strong position: as a turnkey vendor with voluminous experience, we’ve already been awarded several projects and carried them through to a successful conclusion. Now we are hoping that in the future, too, the requisite framework conditions for rapid expansion of the offshore wind power industry will be supported by the political institutions involved”.
One highlight of the guided tour was a look at the offshore joint for submarine power cables. 12 meters long and weighing approximately 5 tons, the interior of the device connects the cable’s three power cores and fiber-optic conductors with each other. The joint is assembled on the installation ship itself.
The minister was also shown the huge cable turntables in front of the hall, the largest of which has a diameter of approximately 40 meters and can carry a weight of 5,000 tons.
[mappress]
Press release, November 30, 2012; Image: nsw