£200m HV cable factory for £21bn UK wind power project
The HIP Atlantic Project will install 10,000 MW of wind turbines in the North Atlantic connected to the United Kingdom by long-length, high-capacity, high-voltage direct current (HVDC) submarine power transmission cables. These cables are to be manufactured in the United Kingdom at a £200 million ($277m) bespoke power cable plant to be built at a port in the northeast of England.
This will make HIP one of the largest submarine HV cable makers in the world alongside Nexans in France and Prysmian in Italy.
Related articles
- Suppliers for the world’s longest undersea HVDC power cable
- €150m deal for two 225kV submarine cable systems
- Submarine power cable qualified to record depth
- Nexans in €50m deal to connect Spanish islands
- Italian energy conglomerate buys General Cable in $3bn deal
HIP has lodged four connection applications with National Grid Company for an initial 4,000 MW of grid connections to the United Kingdom’s 400 kV electricity transmission system across four connection sites. Each wind farm – or pod – will be in a different North Atlantic location, and each pod consisting of 1,000 MW of wind turbines will have its own dedicated cable linked to the United Kingdom.
The pods will be under the exclusive control of the UK’s electricity system operator and connected directly to the UK via the HV cable systems.
HIP Atlantic’s initial 2,000 MW of generation capacity, targeted to be off the southern and eastern coasts of Iceland, is expected to be commissioned in early 2025 to coincide with the UK’s de-commissioning of its last coal-fired power plants.
The offshore wind pods in the North Atlantic will all be installed in a different meteorological catchment area from current North Sea and Irish Sea wind farms and so HIP renewable electricity can be supplied at times when existing British wind farms are becalmed. This diversity of wind source provides a geographical portfolio effect to protect the UK transmission grid from too much offshore wind capacity installed in just one region.
HIP Atlantic says it aims to maximise the British manufactured content in every element of its equipment manufacturing and installation process across offshore wind turbine and cable manufacture, installation and operations. HIP estimates the initial 2,000 MW capacity will create 15,000 jobs, with cables and turbine blades, but it will struggle to source turbines from the UK.
Iceland will be a significant beneficiary of HIP Atlantic’s investment programme in offshore wind. The initial Icelandic investment for the first 2,000 MW pilot phase of the project is expected to be GBP £2.9 million (US $4 million) in 2021 rising to an additional GBP £144 million (US $200 million) through 2025. Up to 500 new jobs located in southern and eastern Iceland are associated with just the 2,000 MW pilot phase.
HIP is an Anglo-American joint venture with Hecate Wind LLC in the US and Independent Power Corporation plc in the UK.
Other articles
- European offshore wind projects beat back Covid-19 downturn
- Siemens Gamesa supplies turbines for €1.3bn Belgian wind farm
- Nexans in sell-off to focus on electrification
- Nexans wins French power grid cable deal
- World’s largest cable maker to use IBM cloud
Popular articles on eeNews Europe
- Lithium sulfur pioneer Oxis Energy faces bankruptcy
- Concrete battery for building power
- Breakthrough for heat energy harvesting
- Silicon anode battery deal in Norway
- Blockchain pilot tracks cobalt from mine to EV
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :