East Anglia ONE is a £2.5 billion offshore windfarm, which will generate enough renewable energy to power 500,000 homes per year. The project will be the most cost efficient offshore windfarm ever to confirm construction, and is leading the way to meet the UK Government’s cost reduction targets. The price of £119 MWh was secured after a competitive auction process run by the Government, and is more than 15 percent lower than other offshore wind projects in construction elsewhere in the UK.
The cables will carry the electricity from the 714 megawatt (MW) windfarm onshore in Suffolk, via two 85 km submarine cables with embedded fibre optics. The contract will preserve 150 jobs in Darlington and the surrounding area, as well as enabling DeepOcean to offer significant opportunities to the UK supply chain. It will also allow DeepOcean to maintain its policy of recruiting STEM graduates into the UK workforce, a policy that has enabled the company to increase its skill base in the complex engineering and execution of demanding offshore projects on a year by year basis.
“Both Nexans and DeepOcean have considerable experience in providing and installing cables for offshore wind power projects in the UK” said Jonathan Cole, Managing Director of Offshore Wind at ScottishPower Renewables. “DeepOcean have won a number of major contracts recently, and it is positive to see that many highly-skilled jobs in Darlington will continue to be supported with the award of this contract, and hopefully this will also lead to further recruitment and training opportunities in the region. This is a huge year for the East Anglia ONE project. Preparations are now underway for the initial work onshore, and we are in advanced planning stages for the offshore work, which will kick-off in 2018. This is the best value offshore windfarm ever to go into construction. We hope that further major contracts will be placed in the UK in the coming months, adding to the jobs and investment we are already creating in Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Hull, Belfast and Darlington.”
Delivery of the cables will begin in summer 2018.
Image: West of Duddon Sands installation
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