A Hartlepool manufacturer has signed a major contract to make 78.1km of cables for use in an offshore wind farm.
JDR Cables, has signed the deal with DEME Offshore to manufacture the cables for SeaMade wind farm.
SeaMade is located 50km off the cost of Ostend, in Belgium, and at 487MW is the largest single wind farm being built in the country. When finished the wind farm will supply energy to 485,000 houses in Belgium and offset 700,000t of CO2 emissions each year.
Robert Weeks, sales manager at JDR, said: “We are extremely proud to have won this competitive tender through our track-record of delivering market-leading cable technology to the offshore wind industry. To date we have supplied over 1,500 km of cables globally which is a fantastic achievement that is down to the quality of our products and the expertise of our people.
“And we are thrilled to say we are playing a part in Belgium’s largest offshore wind farm. As an organisation we are really looking forward to collaborating with DEME Offshore on this impressive project, which will provide power from renewable energy to a substantial amount of homes in Belgium.”
In signing the deal JDR has agreed to manufacture 78.1km of aluminium core inter-array cables and a range of cable accessories. It will also repair joints and connectors.
The cable will be assembled in JDR's Hartlepool facility and delivery is expected by the end of 2019. They will be used to connect the 58 Siemens 8.4MW turbines at the wind farm and will then carry electricity to an offshore substation for transmission to the offshore grid.
SeaMade is expected to be fully operational by 2020.
