Offshore Wind Power - Feature Sample

D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 3 | W W W. W I R E N E T. O R G

OFFSHORE WIND POWER

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F E AT U R E

Offshore Wind Power The demand for offshore wind power, a key element for meeting long-term global warming goals, can be seen in the flow of related stories in the Industry News section (four this issue). The current U.S. backdrop is not so picture-perfect—including cancelled projects—but it is a rare growing field that does experience blips in the early stages. This feature includes a CRU report on offshore wind power, and a range of stories about the field, including one that bubbles.

The U.S. offshore wind farm story has really only just begun The U.S. market for offshore wind farms is stormy at this particular point in time (see p. xx), but this section focuses on positive news. Yes, right now the only two U.S. operating projects are rated at just 42 MW of power, a mere speck compared to China’s 63.2 GW, but more is on the way.

Revolution Wind, an offshore wind project to provide electricity to Connecticut and Rhode Island, has received final government approval to begin construction. The news, while expected, still matters, because the utility scale offshore wind farm will be the second in the Northeast, and by far the largest.

The first project, the Block Island Wind Farm, opened in 2016, has 30 MW of capacity from five turbines, whereas by 2025, Revolution Wind’s 65 turbines will deliver 400 MW to Rhode Island and 304 MW to Connecticut. The project is a partnership of Ørsted, a Danish developer, and U.S. electric supplier Eversource. Nexans will supply and install the subsea cable.

The second operative project, still in a constructive state, is the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW), located some 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. Prysmian was the primary cable supplier, with other cable coming from Hellenic Cables. CVOW includes a pilot and a commercial-scale project. The pilot, which became oper-

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ational in 2020, has two turbines each generating six MW. It is the first offshore wind farm installed in federal waters and the first one developed and owned by an electric utility company (Dominion Energy). When done, it will have 176 turbines generating 2.6 GW. Eversource and Ørsted are also partners in two other U.S. offshore projects in a go mode: the 132 MW South Fork Wind Farm off the coast of Long Island, where construction started in early 2022; and 924 MW Sunrise Wind, to be located some 30 miles east of Montauk, New York. Nexans was a subsea cable supplier for the South Fork project.

Another project is the 800 MW Vineyard Wind 1 under construction off the coast of Massachusetts. It will have 62 wind turbines when it is completed next year. The project is jointly owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Iberdrola, a Spanish multinational electric utility company.

Prysmian supplied the subsea cable for the project while Southwire was named the main supplier of the land cable.

Also, Prysmian recently signed on as a supplier (see p. 10) for the ambitious Clean Path New York project.

The U.S. offshore wind farms outlook may feel murky now, but the footholds to come represent considerable investment from diverse entities. Per CRU’s predictions of energy demand, brighter days will eventually follow.

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F E AT U R E

CRU: strong winds support the long-term offshore cable outlook U.K.-based CRU recently issued a report— High voltage cable production: a critical constraint for offshore wind—by Aisling Hubert, that projects that demand for array cables and export cables will grow an average of 12% year-on-year through 2030. Below is her report, edited for length, which outlines both potential and challenges. For more information, go to www.crugroup.com.

The rapid growth of offshore wind technologies has ignited a surge in demand for high-voltage (HV) cables, serving as the vital lifeline that connects these renewable energy sources to the power grid. As the world pivots towards cleaner energy alternatives, the supply of these HV cables may become a bottleneck in the rollout of offshore wind due to the rapidly rising demand and the geographical dislocation of cable supply and demand centers.

High-voltage cable demand for offshore wind applications, core-km North America Europe China APAC ex. China 25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0 2020

2025

CRU outlook for demand, by km, for the offshore wind to 2030.

Cable demand for offshore wind consists of two main types. Array cables, which connect individual turbines together, and export cables, which connect offshore substations to an onshore grid location. Demand for these cables measured in core-km is expected to grow by an average of 12% year on year from 2022-2030. In value terms, demand

is expected to rise by 15% year on year as the industry shifts to larger and more valuable cable types.

There are two key trends in the demand for offshore cables.

One is the shift from 33 kV to 66 kV array cables to accommodate the growing transmission requirements of larger Hubert turbines with greater power generation. The Other other key trend is the shift to direct-current (DC) technologies as opposed to alternating-current (AC) cables to reduce electrical losses during transmission over long distances as wind farms are increasingly built further from the shore. HV direct current (HVDC) technology also enables the interconnection of offshore wind farms 2030 across different countries, promoting cross-border energy sharing, which is a key component of new energy security plans such as the EU’s REPowerEU initiatives.

China In 2023, China accounts for 35% of offshore wind cable demand. From 2023 to the end of this decade, cable demand for offshore wind applications in China is forecast to grow at a healthy 13% year on year. This estimate may

A few facts about U.S./global wind power (land and offshore) • Per one 2019 report, 1.26 million wind turbines in the U.S. could theoretically serve all the country’s primary electrical needs, although that does not address infrastructure needs. On the positive side, in 2019 the average wind turbine capacity was 2.6 MW, versus 3.8 MW in 2023.

• This year, total global capacity from offshore wind power reached 59,009 MW from 292 operations with some 11,900 wind turbines. The U.S. has two such operations with seven turbines that have capacity of 42 MW. • The U.S. has installed over 144,000 MW of wind capacity, its largest renewable energy source. In 2022, the U.S. wind industry added over 8,500 MW of new capacity.

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There is utility-scale wind power (turbines that are more than 100 kW) installed in 42 states.

• Wind energy provides more than 20% of total U.S. electricity generation in 12 states, with more than 50% in Iowa and South Dakota, and more than 30% in Kansas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, New Mexico and Nebraska.

• Many wind turbine components installed in the U.S. were made here, with more than 500 wind-related manufacturing facilities across the country. The U.S. wind industry currently employs more than 125,000 people, including 23,543 in manufacturing and 45,088 in construction.

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