Offshore Wind is driving increased demand for cable-layers

The impact of offshore wind on the growth of worldwide cable installation campaigns is especially notable.

More than 4,000 vessel days were recorded for cable installation with offshore wind contracted days growing by an impressive 68% year-on-year. Demand from other sectors grew by a small margin in comparison. 

Offshore wind surpasses other cable peers

This growth trend is set to continue. Recent initiatives in line with the upward trend include Hellenic Cables launching an investment program to perform a major expansion of their Corinth cable facility in Greece. This move was made to address the increasing demand for subsea cables which is being driven by rapid growth in the offshore wind sector.

Offshore wind projects trending bigger means more cable is required

One of the main factors in this increased cable demand in offshore wind is the move towards gigantism. Offshore wind projects are getting larger all the time, with the bigger infrastructure required all while also being further away from the shore. This goes hand-in-hand with the increasing demand for cable-layers.

In the future, it is anticipated that shared offshore transmission infrastructure and multi-purpose interconnectors will also drive high demand. While these concepts are yet to see widespread adoption, they will have an impact on demand once policies and technologies are sufficiently developed. 

Spinergie has observed that installation contractors are specializing their cable-laying assets in cable-laying tasks while trenching and post-lay burial jobs are increasingly being performed by ships without cable installation capabilities. This is freeing up cable-layers to meet this widespread increase in demand. 

The number of deliveries of cable-layers has also been increasing in recent years to meet both current demands and anticipated continued growth. In 2023, it is highly likely that Van Oord’s Calypso newbuild will be delivered to boost the global fleet.

Read also: New challenges lay ahead as demand for offshore cables increases
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