Wind power

The answer to energy growth is blowing in the wind

The market for the international wind industry continues to grow and diversify geographically. Wind power is now generating over 3.5% of the world’s electricity. The most advanced scenarios predict that wind could provide 12% of the world’s electrical energy in some 50 countries by 2020.

Despite the occasional lull, wind power has continued to be an attractive alternative to fossil fuels and nuclear plants and is expected to grow around 13% annually. It must increase if high expectations are to be met. Declining wind turbine prices make wind power even more cost-effective, while recent positive trends include a move from onshore to offshore installations, larger wind turbines and innovations such as deep-water floating wind turbines in Norway and Japan.

Growth demands new kinds of expertise. Onshore, upscaled turbines and generators mean that networks need room for added output, multiple connections and reliable links. Offshore projects (50 to 200 km out to sea) require robust submarine cables, precision maritime installation and efficient long-distance transmission.

Above all, variable wind energy calls for overall grid stability through monitoring, control, communications and surveillance.

What you expect from a cable manufacturer:

• Onshore and offshore capability for transmission and distribution links

• Professional installation skills in both remote land-based and on offshore sites, including specialized installation equipment to reduce total installation cost

• A comprehensive range of high-quality windfarm infrastructure cables and accessories from one supplier

• Secure dispatch of energy to the grid during production/demand peaks through application of advanced line monitoring on bare OHL conductors

• Constant innovation to meet constantly evolving technologies and standards

To rise to these challenges, Nexans provides a complete range of cables and accessories for all wind farm infrastructure.

Our expertise supports your network evolution

Onshore and offshore, we have the expertise to interconnect large wind turbines and complete wind farms to local or remote grids. For medium and high voltage cables, Nexans oversees complete installation, from initial pre-qualification, design, customized production, logistics, installation, topside termination, testing and pre-commissioning. This also includes all accessories, which are a key element of any fail-safe energy network.

Offshore, we supply and lay MV subsea cables between wind turbines and the transformer platform, as well as the MV or HV link to the onshore substation. We also provide terminations on wind turbines and transformer platforms. Onshore we provide underground cables and all necessary terminations. We have a full range of transmission and distribution cables and bare overhead conductors to feed local power production into the grids.

Not only does Nexans provide a full range of energy cables, conductors and services, we are also experts in the telecommunications infrastructure needed to manage wind parks, including control and data cables, copper and fibre Local Area Networks.

Innovative technologies:

• World supplier of underground cables, submarine cables, overhead conductors and data/telecom systems.
• Close partnership with developers, power utilities, installers and contractors.
• Mastery of maritime conditions based on oil & gas submarine energy and telecom cabling experience.
• Unsurpassed onshore and offshore installation and topside termination experience using advanced equipment, special software for overhead lines and dynamic cable solutions.
• Complete range of accessories: separable connectors, cold-shrinkable and heat-shrinkable joints and terminations for different types of cable.