Italy’s Prysmian Group has secured an about €60m ($70.8m) cabling order by Orsted for two large German offshore wind extension projects that have a combined capacity of 1.1GW.

The company will provide inter-array cable systems for a total of more than 150km of 66kV XLPE–insulated cables that will connect the wind turbines of the Gode Wind 3 array to an offshore substation platform and of the Borkum Riffgrund 3 wind farm to an offshore converter station where the voltage will be increased and converted for onward transmission to the German mainland.

“We are proud to support Orsted in these two important projects providing our state-of-the-art, high-performance 66kV cable systems for inter-array networks,” said Hakan Ozmen, executive vice president projects at Prysmian Group.

“This agreement further confirms Orsted’s trust in Prysmian's capability and expertise, as well as in its role as a reliable provider of submarine cable systems.”

The Danish offshore wind champion had already awarded Prysmian a contract for its giant Hornsea 2 project off the UK.

Orsted had been successful in Germany’s first and second offshore wind tenders for pre-developed projects in 2017 and 2018 with bids for the Gode Wind and Borkum Riffgrund extensions.

The cables for the two projects will be produced in Montereau and Gron (France), as well as in Nordenham (Germany).

World’s largest cable-laying vessel

Prysmian also announced a 10.5%-increase in its first half 2021 sales to €6.03bn, an adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) or €470, as well as an increase in net profit to €162m in the period, up from €78m in the year-ago quarter.

“The signs of recovery recorded at the beginning of the year have been confirmed and gained further pace in the following months, allowing us to close the first half of the year with even better than expected results," chief executive Valerio Battista said.

“Sales have been chiefly driven by the strong recovery of Telecom and the further acceleration in the construction and infrastructure sectors.”

Prysmian confirmed its strong focus on opportunities arising from the transition to renewable energy and a decarbonised economy, which it expects will require massive investments in power grid infrastructure.

The company’s new cable-laying vessel Leonardo da Vinci, the largest in the world, is ready to start operations and its first mission will be the installation of the cable for the Viking Link interconnection between the UK and Denmark.

Prysmian said the link will be the longest in the world with about 620km underwater and 70km of land route (in the UK).

Wind

Prysmian to supply cabling for Orsted German offshore wind extensions