The Nordseecluster of RWE (51%) and Northland Power (49%) is making further progress. The companies have taken Hellenic Cables S.A. on board as the preferred supplier for their up to 1.6-gigawatt (GW) cluster consisting of four offshore wind farm sites in the German North Sea. The Greek company is to supply approximately 185 km of 66-kV aluminum and copper conductor cables to connect the 44 wind turbines with two offshore substations in Nordseecluster A (wind farms N-3.8 and N-3.7) and the 60 wind turbines of Nordseecluster B (wind farms N-3.6 and N-3.5) that will be directly routed into the transmission system operator’s converter.
Sven Schulemann, RWE’s Managing Director of the Nordseecluster: “This agreement is crucial for the Nordseecluster. We expect to be fully operational at the beginning of 2029. By then, we will generate enough green electricity to supply the equivalent of 1,600,000 German households every year and therefore make a significant contribution to Germany’s energy transition.”
Benjamin Miethling, Northland Power’s Managing Director of the Nordseecluster: “Use in offshore wind farms places particularly high demands on cables. We are pleased to have signed this preferred supplier agreement with Hellenic Cables – a leader in this market. Through agreements like this, we also leverage synergies during the development, construction and operation of the four wind farm sites of our Nordseecluster.”
Hellenic Cables was established in 1950 and is headquartered in Athens. The company designs, manufactures and installs cables ranging from power cables to fiber optic and composite cables and more. The cables deployed for the Nordseecluster will be manufactured at the Hellenic Cables factory located in Sousaki, Corinth (Greece).
Kostas Savvakis, General Manager at Hellenic Cables S.A.:“It is a great honor for Hellenic Cables to have been once again selected by RWE and Northland Power as the preferred supplier for a project – the strategic offshore wind cluster in the German North Sea (the Nordseecluster). We are looking forward to jointly contributing to the country’s energy transition by supplying green electricity through our technologically advanced cables.”
The Nordseecluster will be constructed in two phases. Two wind farms (N-3.8 and N-3.7) with a combined capacity of 660 megawatts (MW) are currently in the permit application phase. Installation of cables at sea is expected to be delivered towards the end of 2025, with commercial operations starting in early 2027 for Nordseecluster A. Two further wind farms (N-3.6 and N-3.5) of the second phase (Nordseecluster B) will provide an additional 900 MW of capacity. The delivery of cables for Nordseecluster B is scheduled for late 2027 with commercial operation to start at the beginning of 2029. RWE and Northland Power plan to bid and to exercise their step-in rights in the German Government’s offshore wind auctions this year for both sites – as they did in 2021 for Nordseecluster A.
The Nordseecluster will be in close proximity to the existing 332-MW Nordsee One wind farm which RWE and Northland Power co-developed and continue to operate jointly. In order to realise the cluster, the partners will rely on experienced suppliers, like Hellenic Cables, and on their own expertise in offshore wind.
