Subsea export cable system for the near shore section of Hornsea 2 wind farm

The project covers the supply of over 200 km of the 245 kV high voltage alternating current (HVAC) subsea export cable system for the near shore section of Hornsea 2 wind farm. When completed, it will power over 1,3 million homes.

About the project

Located in the North Sea, approximately 89 km from the Yorkshire coast, the 1.4 GW offshore wind farm will be the world’s largest once it starts operating. The wind farm, which is the sister project to Hornsea 1, will provide enough electricity to power over 1.3 million homes. Ørsted is now constructing the project, with completion set for 2022. 

Nexans' solutions

To bring the electricity produced by the windfarm onshore, the project will be equipped with Nexans three-core HVAC submarine cables. These 245 kV XLPE cables will be part of the near shore section of the export circuits linking the wind farm’s reactive power substation to the onshore substation. The circuits will comprise three individual near shore export cables and will follow a similar route to Hornsea 1, for which Nexans Germany has earlier supplied 139 km of three-phase 36 kV subsea cable inter-linking a total of 58 wind turbines and connecting them to the offshore transformer station. The route will make landfall at Horseshoe Point from where land cables will feed the power to North Killingholme onshore substation.

These cables for Hornsea 2 project will be manufactured at Nexans Norway site in Halden.