Technavio has issued a report on the most important trends expected to impact the global submarine power cable market outlook from 2016-2020.
According to Anju Ajaykumar , a lead analyst at Technavio for research on engineering tools: “The offshore wind power generation sector is the major end-user of submarine power cables. Utility companies deploy these cables for efficient transportation of electric power. The cables play a vital role from electricity generation to transmitting power, and finally transporting the power onshore. Rising investments worldwide to support renewable energy generation such as tidal turbine, wave energy, and offshore wind power generation will trigger a major demand for submarine power cables during the forecast period.”
The top three emerging trends driving the global submarine power cable market according to Technavio heavy industry research analysts are: volatile raw material price, rise in sales of HVDC power cables, and high R&D investment.
The HVDC underground power cable is a viable option for long distance and high-voltage safe power transfer. The European Commission has selected 43 major energy projects to build cross-border infrastructure that can create a potential internal energy market and also enhance energy security. In these projects, high loads of electricity need to be transferred from one European country to another. HVDC cables are expected to become a viable option for such assignments in the coming years. In addition, the lightweight nature and dimensions of HVDC light cables make them a preferred option over their AC counterparts, especially in submarine power transmission, Technavio said.
Growing number of offshore wind energy installations is fueling R&D investments in the market. Different types of power cables are required for the transmission of power generated from these alternative energy sources. Vendors are focused on developing new technology that enables high-voltage power transmission over long distances without much energy loss. As the market is highly competitive due to the lack of product differentiation, vendors are trying to launch new products to differentiate themselves from their competitors, according to the report.