Prysmian, specialist in the energy and telecom cable industry, has been awarded a contract worth more than € 300 million with Réseau de Transport d'Électricité (RTE) to develop submarine cable links to connect three planned offshore wind farms to the mainland power grid in France.
The three projects, Fécamp, Calvados and Saint Nazaire, are to be individually triggered during the period of the contract. These projects are the first ever grid access connections developed by RTE to transmit renewable energy generated by offshore wind farms to the French network.
Prysmian will be responsible for the design, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of two HV export power cable links for each of the three offshore wind farms covering both the submarine and land routes. The submarine cable links, which consist of High Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC) 220 kV three-core cables with XLPE insulation and single wire armouring, will connect the offshore wind parks being developed by Eolien Maritime France (EMF).
The submarine cables will be produced in the Group’s centres of excellence in Arco Felice, Italy and Pikkala, Finland. The cables for the land sections will be manufactured in Gron, France. Delivery of the cables is expected during the period 2018 and 2020, dependent on the individual scheduling of the wind farms, with commissioning between 2019 and 2022.
“We are proud to support RTE in this important challenge”, stated Massimo Battaini, SVP Energy Projects. “Prysmian is already widely involved in the provision of reliable and more sustainable power transmission connections in France, through the realisation of the France-Spain and the Italy-France interconnectors. The offshore wind market in France is a new and promising development in this segment, and this contract not only consolidates our relationship with RTE but also re-affirms Prysmian’s world leadership in providing HV submarine cable solutions”, concluded Battaini.
Prysmian has been playing a leading role in the development of offshore wind farms in Europe, with a strong track record including the realisation of high voltage submarine and land cable solutions for major projects like BorWin2 and Borwin3, Helwin1 and Helwin2, SylWin1, Dolwin3, West of Adlergrund.
Saint-Nazaire Offshore Wind Farm will use Ridgeway Rockbags for cable stabilisation and protection.
This wind farm, with 80 locally manufactured 6MW wind turbines, is located between 12 and 20 km off the coast of Guérande and will be operational before the end of 2022 and is the result of a €2.2b public investment. Sarens, world reference in heavy lifting, engineered transport and crane rental, has been involved since 2021 in the load-in, load-out, transport and storage of monopiles and transition pieces weighing up to 980t at the port of La Rochelle, from where they were transferred to their final destination.
The first of a number of transformers that will enable the transmission of renewable energy from the world’s largest offshore wind farm has been delivered. The transformers will play an integral role in the operation of three onshore convertor stations in East Riding of Yorkshire and on Teesside, that will eventually convert the current from the wind farm for transmission via the national grid network to 6 million UK homes.
The Spanish engineering company Saitec has announced its interest in developing a pre-commercial pilot park with 5 units and a total potential of 50MW in the Mediterranean Sea in 2025. The offshore wind turbines will use SATH technology in open sea in Girona, specifically in an area located more 15 km from Cap de Creus on the Costa Brava (Catalonia)
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