The Carbon Trust has announced the five winners of its dynamic export cable competition as a part of the Floating Wind Joint Industry Project (Floating Wind JIP), which aims to accelerate and support the development of commercial-scale floating wind farms.
The Floating Wind JIP is a collaboration among EnBW, ENGIE, Eolfi, E.ON, Equinor, innogy, Kyuden Mirai Energy, Ørsted, ScottishPower Renewables, Shell, Vattenfall and Wpd, with support from the Scottish government.
The competition, supported by BPP Cables, was launched to address the lack of availability of high-voltage dynamic export cables for the transmission of power from wind farms to shore, which has been identified by the industry as a potential bottleneck for the commercial deployment of floating wind technology, says the Carbon Trust.
The objective of the competition is to ensure that this technology is a viable option for developers for commercial floating wind projects within the next five to 10 years.
The competition winners are as follows:
- Aker Solutions (Norway)
- Furukawa Electric Co. (Japan)
- Hellenic Cables S.A. (Greece)
- JDR Cable Systems (the U.K.)
- Zhongtian Technology Submarine Cable Co. Ltd (China)
Drawing on the expertise of existing offshore wind cable suppliers, as well as tapping into the oil and gas supply chain, the competition funding will support the design, initial testing and development of dynamic cables ranging from 130 kV to 250 kV to enable the efficient transmission of power from floating wind turbines to shore.
The Carbon Trust and the 12 Floating Wind JIP developers will be supporting and collaborating with these cable suppliers to support the development of their cables.
This first phase of the project will conclude in March 2020. Results may then help to inform subsequent project phases to support the deployment of dynamic export cables across the industry.
“We are delighted with the response we got from the industry, and we are looking forward to working with the five competition winners,” says Rory Shanahan, manager of offshore wind at 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 commercialization 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.”
