The Invisible Backbone: 5 Unsung Innovations Keeping Wind and Solar energy Alive

According to the IEA’s updated Net Zero Roadmap (2023), to reach net-zero energy sector CO2 emissions, over 70% of new energy capacity must come from wind and solar farms by 2050. But scaling up to meet this target is only half the battle. Ensuring wind and solar installations operate reliably across oceans, deserts, or mountains is just as critical.

Wind and solar farms are often built in some of the world’s harshest and most remote locations. Once installed, their components must function for decades with limited human access and under constant exposure to salt, sand, heat, and vibrations.

While most attention is focused on turbines and electrical panels, equally critical elements of system performance lie in the accessories that connect everything.

Like any high-performance system, such as long-haul aviation, offshore oil rigs, or space exploration, solar and wind systems demand components that are robust, modular, and remotely diagnosable. In a utility-scale wind or solar energy farm, a single weak link can compromise system integrity and interrupt power delivery. Which is why the industry is shifting from passive, one-size-fits-all accessories to tailored, intelligent component systems that anticipate downtime risks, extend infrastructure lifespan, and reduce overall operating costs.

The 5 grid accessory innovations leading this shift are: modular 145kV connectors for offshore wind farms, pre-assembled cable systems for grid electrical systems, sensor-based components, modular cable kits, and high-performance polymers and sealing materials.

Five accessory innovations redefining reliability in wind and solar energy farms.

1. Offshore-ready connectors engineered for high-voltage resilience

Offshore wind farms face unique conditions: constant motion, salt-laden air, and high-voltage transmission requirements. Conventional connectors can corrode, loosen, or degrade over time.

The innovation: Compact, modular 145 kV connectors designed for offshore wind applications are enabling more efficient transmission from increasingly powerful turbines. Their compact design facilitates installation in constrained environments while minimizing bending forces on connected equipment such as switchgear or transformers. Engineered for long-term performance, they feature high resistance to corrosion, vibration, and pressure, making them well-suited for the harsh and demanding conditions of subsea and offshore environments.

The result: Fewer failure points, longer service intervals, and enhanced safety in locations where unplanned repairs are difficult and expensive.

2. Pre-connected cable systems that minimize human error

In remote or high-risk locations, every hour spent on electrical installation increases exposure and cost. Grid technicians often face high levels of fatigue, while installation errors such as overtightening or misalignment can compromise long-term performance.

The innovation: Factory-assembled, tested and pre-connected cable systems minimize on-site handling, which helps reduce human error and accelerate installation in challenging environments.

The result: Safer, faster installations and greater reliability from day one, especially important in demanding environments.

3. Sensorized accessories that detect failure before it happens

Failure in a joint or termination often begins invisibly due to exposure to thermal fatigue, mechanical stress, vibrations, and moisture ingress. In remote wind and solar farms, these silent failures can go undetected until a power outage occurs.

The innovation: Accessories equipped with built-in sensors that continuously monitor internal conditions such as temperature and insulation health. The sensor-generated data is directly integrated with Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems and predictive operation and maintenance (O&M) schedules, enabling smart monitoring and intelligent diagnostics. Ørsted, the global leader in offshore wind and one of the world’s largest renewable energy companies, integrates cable diagnostics and performance monitoring into its offshore substations to support early fault detection and reduce unplanned downtime.

The result: Issues are detected early, enabling preventive maintenance instead of reactive repairs. This significantly reduces downtime and helps operators move toward fully digital, condition-based asset management.

4. Modular connector kits adapted to site-specific layouts

Each solar and wind farm configuration is unique.  Varying terrain, layout constraints, and project scale all affect how cable accessories are planned and installed.

The innovation: Modular connector kits tailored to site-specific layouts are now helping reduce errors and delays on large renewable projects. Each wind or solar farm comes with its own constraints (terrain variations, equipment spacing, layout geometry)—which can complicate on-site installation. To streamline this process, system modeling tools are used upstream to configure customized kits of pre-assembled connectors, adapted to the physical layout and routing paths of each site.

The result: This modular approach, inspired by practices used in offshore wind and utility-scale solar projects, ensures faster, safer, and more reliable installations, especially in remote or hard-to-access environments where technician time is limited and rework is costly.

5. Materials that resist decades of environmental stress

UV exposure, salt spray, sand, moisture ingress, hot ambient temperature and thermal cycling are harsh realities for wind and solar installations.

The innovation: High-performance polymers (such as EPDM Material) and sealing materials that resist abrasion, extreme temperature variations, and long-term weathering. These components are engineered to maintain integrity under the toughest environmental conditions, whether buried, exposed, or submerged.

The result: Accessories that withstand years of exposure without degradation, helping ensure system stability over time. Offshore wind developers now utilize vibration-tolerant junction systems to extend the lifespan of accessories in one of the harshest operating environments. As renewable infrastructure expands into increasingly extreme terrain and climate zones, long-lasting materials are proving crucial to performance and return on investment.

Innovative accessory technologies for a more resilient wind and solar energy future

As wind and solar energy take center stage in the global energy mix, connecting accessories must evolve to meet the demand for robust components that are adapted to extreme environments. Innovative accessory technologies are transforming once-passive components into intelligent, tailored, and long-lasting solutions that improve the system-wide reliability and cost-effectiveness of large-scale wind and solar farms.

Smart accessories, equipped with embedded diagnostics, connected to SCADA systems, and optimized through system modeling, are helping operators meet performance expectations while managing costs and risks.

In decentralized energy systems, even the smallest components bear the greatest responsibility. Nexans is at the forefront of advancing accessory technologies that enable uninterrupted power and reinforce system reliability in demanding environments. By focusing on robust design, embedded intelligence, and configuration based on system modeling, Nexans ensures that these silent connections deliver consistent reliability, contributing to the resilience of solar and wind installations.

While attention is often focused on cables and transformers, the most overlooked and failure-prone elements of electrical grids are the accessories that silently connect everything.

More than 70% of distribution grid failures occur at junctions; but most utilities still rely on inspections with limited visibility.

These hidden critical links are often buried beneath city streets and deep under the ocean floors, silently carrying power. When they fail, the consequences include costly repairs, extended downtime, and widespread service disruptions. Preventing this costly domino effect is a top priority for grid operators today.

So, why do these critical connection points fail in the first place, and more importantly, how can they be avoided?

Accessories: the hidden cause behind grid failure

It is often mistakenly assumed that electrical grid failures are due to faulty cables and transformers. But in reality, it is the accessories (cable connectors, joints, and terminations) that account for a disproportionate share of failures.

These components degrade over time due to thermal fatigue, mechanical stress, vibrations, moisture ingress, and, in many cases, improper installation practices such as misalignment or over torque. Pinpointing the location of a failure is notoriously difficult. Limited visibility and lack of diagnostic data make troubleshooting time-consuming and costly.

As an example, an MV cable connector failure can cost, on average, between €10,000 and €50,000 to repair.

These failure mechanisms underscore why accessories, despite their compact size, harbor a disproportionate share of the operational risk within medium-voltage grids. Yet their role extends well beyond reliability concerns alone, serving as critical enablers of performance, safety, and future-ready grid modernization.

Much like the telecommunications industry before it, the energy sector must now evolve toward real-time visibility, predictive fault detection, and continuous diagnostic intelligence to meet the demands of a modernized grid.

Smart Accessories: From Hidden Weak Links to Strategic Grid Resilience Enablers

To address these vulnerabilities and modernize grid maintenance strategies, accessories are now being elevated into intelligent assets.

Despite their modest size, accessories like joints and connectors are often the weakest links in grid infrastructure. Their vulnerability is compounded by harsh environmental exposure; yet, until recently, they have been treated as passive components.

That’s now changing. As utilities grapple with aging infrastructure and the rising cost of outages, accessories are being redefined as intelligent and predictive assets. Equipped with embedded sensors and connected into digital monitoring platforms, today’s smart accessories enable early fault detection and real-time performance insights, allowing operators to shift from reactive maintenance to proactive grid management.

Utilities adopting these technologies have already reported notable reductions in outage durations, emergency interventions, and overall operational expenditures.

The Technology Powering Smart Accessories

Transforming accessories from passive components into intelligent assets requires a new generation of technologies. These innovations empower operators with real-time visibility capabilities, allowing them to anticipate failures before they occur, rather than respond after the fact.

To meet these evolving expectations, manufacturers are now delivering advanced accessory systems featuring:

• Smart joints, terminations, and connectors equipped with embedded sensors for voltage, temperature, and partial discharge (PD) monitoring
• Predictive dashboards that combine historical data with live grid inputs to flag emerging risks
• Seamless integration with digital twins, mobile diagnostics tools, and SCADA platforms for comprehensive grid visibility.

Together, these technologies are shifting maintenance strategies from reactive interventions to proactive, data-driven grid optimization, enabling faster diagnostics, more accurate root-cause analysis, and fewer unexpected outages.

But what makes these smart accessories possible? At the heart of this transformation are three enabling technologies, powering the shift from passive parts to intelligent, self-monitoring systems:

Real-world impact: how utilities leverage smart accessories

Utilities that embed smart accessories within predictive diagnostics and installation traceability frameworks are achieving tangible performance gains:

• A Nordic operator reduced fault localization times from 48 hours to under six hours, sharply reducing costly emergency interventions and, consequently, OPEX.
• National Grid in the UK deploys partial discharge and thermal sensors in medium- and high-voltage cable systems to reduce unplanned outages and maintain lower SAIDI (National Grid Innovation Report, 2022).
• Alliander (Netherlands) is deploying more than 3,000 Smart Cable Guard systems (recently partnering with Nexans) across its medium-voltage grid to tackle aging infrastructure and outage risk. Field data shows that each unit prevents over 6,000 customer minutes lost annually, with fault localization accurate within 1% of cable length. Following strong results from initial pilots, the rollout supports Alliander’s broader effort to lower SAIFI and SAIDI across a 40,000 km MV network.

 A Strategic Shift in Grid Management

The evolution of accessories from passive components to intelligent assets is reshaping how utilities manage and future-proof their grids. Smart accessories now play a strategic role in boosting reliability, extending component lifespan, and reducing operation costs.

As utilities confront the twin pressures of aging infrastructure and accelerating electrification, these solutions are becoming essential to predictive maintenance and resilient network operation. This marks a broader transformation, from static systems to intelligent, self-monitoring grids.

Nexans is helping lead this industry shift, providing advanced smart accessory systems and end-to-end lifecycle support that enable grid operators to anticipate, monitor, and optimize their networks with unprecedented precision and confidence.

Customer experience starts with skills

In many sectors, performance depends as much on human precision as on technological advancement:

• In aviation, simulation-based training helps crews stay prepared for complex scenarios
• In advanced manufacturing, augmented reality tools guide workers through critical procedures
• In financial services, AI-based coaching improves the quality of client interactions

These approaches reflect a shared belief that strong customer experience comes not only from great products, but from the ability of people to apply them correctly, consistently, and along the whole value chain, from the start to the end. Up-skilling is even more relevant in the energy sector.

The electrification challenge: complexity and consequence

As the global push for decarbonization accelerates, electrification has become the backbone of energy systems. Power networks today must integrate renewable energies and always more decentralized generation, leading to bi-directional flows and intermittent production. In the meantime, electrification and new customer needs are growing (electrical vehicules, heat pumps, AI development and related construction of datacenters, electro intensive industries…).

Grids must therefore be modernized and become Smarter. They also have to become more resilient against extreme weather events. Their vulnerability against human errors during installation has become more critical than ever.

According to ENTSO-E, more than 60 percent of Europe’s grid components are over 40 years old. In this context, the margin for error is shrinking. A single installation mistake can affect reliability, safety, and customer satisfaction, leading to delays, warranty claims, and long-term service costs.

The numbers speak for themselves:

• 400 million euros are lost each year in Europe due to improper installation of cable accessories
• Up to 50% of medium-voltage (MV) cable accessory failures are caused by installation errors
• In the Netherlands, 12.5% of total SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index) minutes are attributed to these issues
  (Source: EA Technology, Jicable 2023 E1-4; Review of Medium-Voltage Asset Failure Investigations, 2018)

These are not design flaws. They are execution problems. And they are preventable.

Training also closes the gap between system design and field reality. In today’s energy infrastructure, it serves three purposes: it transfers critical technical knowledge and workmanship, strengthens accuracy and speed on the ground, and supports a culture of accountability and excellence.

Measurable impact in the field

In recent assessments, teams that completed structured and certifying training programs showed:

• A 58% reduction in Medium Voltage cable accessories failure rates
• A 25% improvement in installation speed
• A customer satisfaction rate of 97%
  (Source: Nexans Internal Impact Study, 2024)

These improvements are not theoretical. They directly affect grid resilience, budget predictability, customer satisfaction and trust.

Training for modernizing and expanding grids

As grids become more complex, training must adapt. This includes at Nexans:

• Hands-on installation practice
• Certification based on practical performance, not just theory
• Partial discharge and AC withstand testing of i samples assembled during training
• Language flexibility and local adaptations
• Programs covering low, medium, and high-voltage applications, including renewables

Training today is not a static classroom experience. It is technical, tailored, and aligned with operational goals. In most cases, it also provides certification that is now increasingly necessary to operate and secure installations in compliance with industry standards.

The example of Nexans Certifying Training Services

In response to growing demand for skilled installation and maintenance teams and to a lack of certified technicians in most countries, Nexans has structured a comprehensive global training program. Delivered worldwide through eight centers located mainly in Africa, Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Europe including France and DOM-TOM, and supported by a dedicated team of 25 trainers and experts all over the world (including the US and Latin Americas), the program is designed to reflect the diversity and complexity of real-world electrification projects.

In 2024 only, over 2,800 professionals took part in training sessions offered in seven languages and tailored to more than 15 voltage levels and accessory types. The curriculum spans low-, medium-, and high-voltage systems, as well as renewable applications, with flexible, on-demand modules to support different phases of a project.

Each session combines technical theory with hands-on practice. For the most demanding applications, installed samples are tested under real conditions using partial discharge and AC withstand protocols, and certification is awarded based on demonstrated results, not just attendance (in France, the certification process is COFRAC accredited).

The success of electrification worldwide depends not only on smart systems, but on the right-skilled people who install and operate them. Training gives those people the skills and confidence they need to deliver reliability, safety and consistency to the grid networks.

Companies that invest in training are doing more than reducing technical risk. They are building trust, reinforcing performance, and redefining what great customer experience looks like. In the race toward a sustainable energy future, human expertise is what brings every connection to life.

As an innovation-driven leader in the electrification sector, Nexans continues to pioneer advanced training and supervision solutions that help build the grids of tomorrow.