The Global Underwater Hub (GUH) has unveiled a white paper outlining its strategy to address a critical challenge facing the UK’s clean energy goals: improving the performance and reliability of subsea cable systems.
These systems are vital components of offshore wind infrastructure, responsible for transmitting electricity from wind farms to the power grid.
With global investments in offshore wind farms projected to exceed US$800 billion by 2030, and a need to increase generating capacity by 1,120 GW by 2050 to meet net-zero emissions targets, the reliability of subsea cables has become a pressing concern.
The UK government has set an ambitious target of 50 GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2030, underscoring the urgency of this issue.
Neil Gordon, CEO of GUH, emphasised the scale of the challenge: “This scale of expansion, in both fixed and floating offshore wind, can only be achieved by installing and maintaining hundreds of thousands of kilometres of reliable subsea cables.”
He added that these cables are highly susceptible to damage during installation and operation, leading to substantial insurance claims and costly downtime.
The initiative is particularly crucial for the emerging floating offshore wind sector, which requires even more complex dynamic cables.
GUH sees this as an opportunity for the UK’s underwater supply chain to lead in subsea cable systems, leveraging its world-leading installed base of offshore wind capacity and strong project pipeline.
To address these challenges, GUH is establishing the UK Subsea Cable System Forum.
This forum aims to develop a collaborative roadmap with industry partners, influence standards and policies, and enhance system-based design, data sharing, and quality control.
These efforts are intended to support the economic viability of offshore wind projects and solidify the UK’s position as a centre of excellence in subsea cable systems.
The white paper comes at a time when the UK government has adjusted its 2030 offshore wind target to 43-50 GW, including 5 GW of floating wind, down from the previous 60 GW target.
This adjustment reflects the need to address supply chain constraints and other challenges in the rapidly growing offshore wind sector.
As the offshore wind industry continues to expand, the work of GUH and its partners in improving subsea cable reliability will play a crucial role in achieving the UK’s clean energy ambitions and contributing to global net-zero targets.
