Carbon Trust Reveals Export Cable Contest Winners

The Carbon Trust has revealed the five winners of its dynamic export cable competition, part of the Floating Wind Joint Industry Project (JIP).

The winners are the Norwegian Aker Solutions, Japan’s Furukawa Electric Co., Greek Hellenic Cables, the UK-based JDR Cable Systems and China’s Zhongtian Technology Submarine Cable.

Supported by BPP Cables, the competition was launched to address the lack of availability of high voltage dynamic export cables, identified by the industry as a potential bottleneck for commercial deployment of floating wind.

The competition funding will support the design, initial testing and development of dynamic cables ranging from 130kV to 250kV to enable the efficient transmission of power from floating wind turbines to shore.

The objective is to make sure that the technology is a viable option for developers for commercial floating wind projects within the next 5-10 years, the Carbon Trust said.

“We are delighted with the response we got from the industry and we are looking forward to working with the five competition winners,” said Rory Shanahan, Manager – Offshore Wind, the Carbon Trust.

“The lack of dynamic export cables has been identified as a hurdle that needs to be overcome by industry to ensure the commercialisation of floating wind farms, and we are excited to begin work to ensure that this technology is ready in time for commercial floating wind projects.”

The Floating Wind JIP is a collaborative R&D initiative between The Carbon Trust and EnBW, ENGIE, Eolfi, E.ON, Equinor, innogy, Kyuden Mirai Energy, Ørsted, ScottishPower Renewables, Shell, Vattenfall, Wpd, with support from the Scottish Government.

Project partners will be supporting and collaborating with the five cable suppliers to support the development of their cables.

This first phase of the project will conclude in March 2020 and the results may then help to inform subsequent project phases to support the deployment of dynamic export cables across the industry.