Jan De Nul Reels In Ørsted’s Hornsea 3 Export Cable Job

Belgium-based offshore installation contractor Jan De Nul has signed the export cable contract with Ørsted for its 2.9 GW Hornsea 3 offshore wind farm in the U.K.

Jan De Nul will be responsible for the seabed preparation, transport, installation and protection of 350 km of DC export cables connecting the wind farm to the U.K. electricity grid.

For the installation and protection of the DC export cables, the company is going to deploy several vessels.

Cable-laying vessels Isaac Newton and Connector will transport and install the cables, and to protect the cables a variety of burial solutions will be used including the rock-installation vessel Simon Stevin which will install up to 150,000 tonnes of rock to protect the cables.

The works will start in 2025 and are expected to be completed early 2027.

The Hornsea 3 offshore wind farm is located 160 km off the Yorkshire coast. With its 2.9 GW capacity, this wind farm will become the largest individual offshore wind farm to date and will bring the total capacity of the Hornsea offshore wind zone to 5.4 GW – making the development the world’s largest.

The offshore wind farm is expected to generate enough renewable electricity to power the homes of 3.3 million British households.

“We are proud to support Ørsted in building the world’s largest individual offshore wind farm by connecting 2.9 GW of renewable energy capacity to the UK’s national grid. Thanks to our collaboration with Ørsted, which includes recent projects such as the monopile installations for Gode Wind 3 and Borkum Riffgrund 3 in Germany, we keep on constructing the energy transition together,” said Wouter Vermeersch, manager offshore cables at Jan De Nul Group.

The final investment decision for the Hornsea 3 project, expected to cost $10.3-$11 billion (DKK 70-75 billion), was made in December 2023.