French cable maker Nexans has locked down a major contract to supply and install the export cable for the 804MW Empire Wind 1 offshore wind development being built off the US state of New York.
The deal cements a preferred supplier agreement with the project’s developers, a joint venture (JV) between Norwegian oil & gas giant Equinor and partner supermajor BP, that was signed in March 2021 for the 2.1GW combined Empire Wind 1 & 2 projects.
Nexans remains preferred supplier for Empire Wind 2.
“Signing the contract for Empire Wind 1 further establishes Nexans as a major player in renewable energy in the US and will alleviate added pressures on the state’s electrical grids,” Christopher Guérin, CEO of Nexans, said.
The Nexans contract is the latest in a spate of port and supply chain agreements entered into by Empire’s developers over the past year as they gear up for offshore construction.
The Empire projects are expected to receive the federal government’s ROD [record of decision] next May, paving the way for the project to begin onshore construction and offshore export cable laying in 2024. Empire Wind 1 is slated to begin commercial operations in December 2026, followed by Empire Wind 2 in 2027.
The Equinor-led JV has committed to an over $250m offshore wind-ready upgrade to transform the SBMT into the centre of not only the Empire Wind but also the 1.23GW Beacon Wind project awarded its offtake contract in New York’s round 2 tender in 2020. The state is legally mandated to procure 9GW of offshore wind by 2035 but is looking at further goals that might exceed 20GW.
Nexans will provide the two 230kV high voltage alternating current (HVAC) export cable from both at its Charleston, South Carolina plant as well as one in Halden, Norway.
The contract includes installation of the export cables from the Empire Wind 1 offshore substation at the lease area located some 20 miles (33km) south of Long Island, New York, to landfall at SBMT.
This is the third export cable contract signed in the US and follows similar news last month that the cable maker had finalised its contract to supply the export cable for the Revolution Wind project under development for the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island.
The joint venture of Danish developer Orsted and New England utility Eversource had already contracted Nexans for the project’s export cable installation last March.
Nexans also signed on to manufacture and install the export cables for the Orsted-led JV’s South Fork array headed for New York.
“Establishing our footprint in the United States and furthering our commitment to the U.S. offshore wind industry is at the core of our business operations. We have made several investments to deliver subsea transmission cables that are manufactured and installed in America,” Ragnhild Katteland Nexans’ executive vice president said.
Nexans is a major supplier for the industry in Europe, with over 33% of the export cable market, according to data from Norwegian market research firm Rystad, and continues its dominance into the US with its repurposed Charlestown, South Carolina cable-making plant that began producing last year.
Booming US cable demand
The US will need at least 979 miles (1,575km) of cable to reach the Biden administration’s offshore wind goal of 30GW by 2030, according to the 2021 Offshore Wind Market Report by the US Department of Energy.
To ensure a sufficient supply of both export and inter-array cables, several developers have tied investment into cable manufacturing to recent tender awards.
Danish offshore wind developer Orsted tied up with Greek cable maker Hellenic Cables in a $140m investment into inter-array manufacturing facility at its Tradepoint Atlantic site in Maryland as part of its Skipjack 2.1 win in the round two Maryland auctions last December. The inter-array cable maker will supply the entire US market.
Avangrid, meanwhile, teamed up with Italian cable maker Prysmian to build a $900m subsea cable factory at the site of former coal-fired power plant at Brayton Point, Massachusetts.
The cable plant is part of the utility's 1.2GW Commonwealth Wind bid's investment package. Avangrid had won the entire acreage in Massachusetts' third round offshore wind auction last December. The plant is slated to supply and install cables for both the Commonwealth project and the 804MW Park City Wind project, also owned by Avangrid.
For the Empire Wind export cable installation, Nexans confirmed to Recharge it will deploy a “spread consisting of several vessels suitable for the various conditions along the cable route, which could include Nexans’ own CL [cable laying] vessels Aurora and Skagerrak”.
Cable laying vessels are uniquely exempt from the mandate of the Jones Act that requires all vessels transporting goods between American ports or fixed points on the outer continental shelf, including offshore wind turbines, be US-flagged.
As cable makers aren’t transporting goods but playing out cable, the US Coast Guard has determined that they are exempt. Neither the Aurora or Skagerrak are US-flagged, and as cables expand with the ever-enlarging turbines, cable laying vessels are yet another looming bottleneck for the burgeoning global offshore wind sector.
