DONG Energy has contracted Nexans to supply and terminate a total of 139km of a three-phase subsea cable for the first of three construction phases of the Hornsea Project One wind farm.
The 34kV cables of latest generation will be used for inter-linking a total of 58 wind turbines and connecting them to the offshore transformer station. This first stage (406MW) of the 1.2GW wind farm is expected to be operational within approximately three years. The supply and termination of the Nexans cable will begin in spring 2018 and should be completed around a year later.
Nexans team will be accommodated on board a service operation vessel in the vicinity of the project and work in an adapted shift rotation so that they do not have to cover the large distance every day.
Once built, Horsea Project One will be the largest offshore wind farm in the world, capable of meeting the annual electricity needs of more than one million homes. The offshore wind farm will be built in water depths of up to 40 metres, approximately 120km from the English coast. It will consist of up to 174 7MW wind turbines, covering approximately 407 square kilometres.
Onshore construction of the project started in early 2016 with offshore construction due to begin in 2018.
In autumn 2014, DONG and Nexans signed a framework agreement for offshore array cabling. The supply of cable and accessories, as well as the installation for Hornsea Project One is a call-off from that framework agreement. In addition, the teams from Nexans will install the internal cabling of all three transformer stations for Hornsea Project One in their building yards.