The Global Underwater Hub (GUH) will launch a new forum to tackle rising costs and reliability issues facing subsea cable systems on the UK’s offshore wind farms.
In a new white paper, the trade and development body outlined its approach to meeting the challenge, which it warned could derail the UK’s clean energy ambitions.
Subsea cables are critical elements of offshore wind infrastructure, essential to transmitting electricity from offshore wind farms to the grid.
GUH chief executive Neil Gordon said: “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.
“The performance and reliability of these cables is therefore crucial to delivering the UK’s clean offshore power ambition and global net zero targets. But these cables are highly susceptible to damage during installation and operation, leading to substantial insurance claims and costly downtime.”
This is especially true for floating offshore wind, which requires even more complex dynamic cables, with the technology set to take an increasing percentage of the world’s installed offshore wind capacity.
GUH’s paper sets out the challenges and presents a solution for how the UK can tackle cable performance and reliability and, through first-mover advantage, become a centre of excellence for subsea cable systems in floating offshore wind.
By establishing and leading the UK Subsea Cable System Forum, GUH will ensure that the entire supply chain can effectively influence standards and policy to improve reliability, cost effectiveness and quality of cable systems supplied in the UK.
The forum, through the development of an agreed roadmap, led by an industry steering committee and working with partners across the sector, will drive innovation and improvements in systems-based design, data sharing and quality control.
As a result of this increased collaboration, the forum will influence the development of the standards needed to reduce risk and increase performance.
Gordon added: “Cable reliability not only makes offshore wind projects more economically viable but also ensures the energy supply is uninterrupted. It is therefore paramount not only to developers, investors and the industry, but also to the whole country, which will increasingly rely on the power that passes through them.”
His comments come ahead of GUH’s Subsea Expo exhibition and conference taking place at the P&J Live in Aberdeen from Tuesday, 18 until Thursday, 20 February.
The opening day of the leading industry event will kick off with a business breakfast exploring market opportunities across multiple sectors, both domestically and overseas, with a focus on oil and gas and offshore renewables.
Chaired by Scottish Enterprise, the session will follow Subsea Expo’s overall theme for 2025, ‘Deep in Transition’.
