JDR’s Chief Strategy Officer: ‘Look at floating wind’

JDR Cable Systems is already at the forefront of the production and supply of dynamic subsea cables to the floating wind market and will become a leader as the market expands, JDR’s Chief Strategy and Compliance Officer said in an interview with our sibling news site offshoreWIND.biz.

In this article:

• Public-private sector collaboration key to strengthening offshore wind industry
• ‘Look at floating wind!’
• New JDR factory in Blyth: Low-emission and future-proofed for 275 kV export cables

The UK-based offshore wind cable supplier has already delivered cables for several floating wind projects, including the 88 MW Hywind Tampen in Norway, currently the world’s largest floating wind farm in operation and the first to power oil and gas platforms.

JDR has also logged orders for Europe’s first floating wind farm, WindFloat Atlantic in Portugal, and the French EolMed project.

With the new floating wind capacity announced in the UK and globally, the company is set to lead the way in the supply of dynamic cables, according to James Young, Chief Strategy and Compliance Officer at JDR Cable Systems.

“As a market leader in dynamic cables for floating wind in Europe, we are very interested in supplying these cables on a global scale too. Not only is the UK going to build more floating wind farms but there are also many other countries around the world that don’t have a very shallow continental shelf and will need to install floating wind turbines. And JDR is very much going to take a leading role in supplying the key technologies to make that a success”, James Young said.

Young further added that besides JDR’s expertise, development and investments, collaboration with offshore wind developers and the supply chain and, maybe even more so, with the government was crucial to further strengthen both the domestic capabilities as well as the UK’s position to export offshore wind technology.

For offshore wind projects, collaboration with developers and installation contractors starts very early to make sure everything is engineered properly and with a full understanding of how the cables and other components are going to be installed in harsh offshore conditions and how they are going to operate during their lifetime.

JDR is also part of industry collaborations and initiatives, including the Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC) which gathers developers and some of the leading supply chain companies who work together with the government. But some of the strongest collaborations are in the supply chain and research and development (R&D), according to James Young.

“Last November, JDR Cable Systems and NOF Energi Coast hosted a supply chain event with an aim to bring together as many new suppliers and existing suppliers as possible to talk about the importance of working together, sharing knowledge, innovations, and working on new technologies”, Young said.

The company has also been collaborating with the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult on the development and demonstration of innovative cable technologies for ten years.

“We worked together with ORE Catapult to demonstrate our 66 kV array cable technology and then took the 66 kV cables to the market where they have dramatically reduced the cost of offshore wind. So when you get these collaborations right, the supply chain can offer new technology for which some developers will raise hands to be the first users and that is exactly where significant reduction in offshore wind costs and benefits to the consumer can come from.”

Still, more collaborative support is needed to position the UK as a leading producer of offshore wind technologies and companies such as JDR as a major exporter, Young highlighted and added that this can come only from the government which already set an ambitious offshore wind target for 2030.

Firstly, to maintain the strong pipeline of projects, regular subsidy allocation rounds are essential, as is the work on regulatory matters. On top of this, continued investment and combined investment with funding from both private and public sectors are needed to move the sector and offshore wind buildout forward, according to James Young.

“We find that if governments and industry are behind the investment in things such as our expansion project, it is much easier for us to also secure financing from our board or from our financial partners. So that is where collaboration can really help to unlock that private investment to scale up the facilities needed to deliver the energy transition”, Young said.

More than in any field, backing is needed in innovation and bringing new offshore wind technologies to the market, including cable systems, JDR’s Chief Strategy and Compliance Officer said.

“We need to see that continued pipeline of funding opportunities to develop technology in the R&D stage where the risk is higher. When you are working on an R&D project you are trying something new that inherently bears the risk of potentially not working. We need those funding schemes to help us to move new ideas forward. If these projects are done in the right way, they will deliver huge value for the consumers”, James Young said.

Here, Young pointed to floating wind saying the UK needs to continue the work it had already been doing – but step it up a few gears to catch up with the pace globally.

“We can see that globally, the floating wind industry continues moving forward and several other countries are already going at a faster pace. So my advice would be: look at floating wind! It has a huge export potential and we need to unlock those projects, whether they’re demonstration projects or commercial floating wind farms – let’s get behind them”, Young said.

In floating wind, the UK not only has an opportunity to position itself as an exporter in the installation and servicing areas but also dynamic cables as it already has a market-leading company in this regard, Young emphasized.

“Let’s demonstrate to the world that we can deliver floating wind with great dynamic cable technology from us and show the world it is successful. And that will create that huge opportunity for the world to decarbonise its energy system.”

And with the world working on decarbonizing, so is JDR Cable Systems, the company’s Chief Strategy and Compliance Officer says.

While JDR delivered the cables for the floating wind projects from its Hartlepool facility, the company is currently building a new facility in Blyth. This will be one of the world’s largest factories for offshore wind cables once it enters operation in 2025 – and it is designed to be 100% powered by renewable energy.

“We have designed the Blyth factory this way so we can maximise the opportunity to use renewables in the future. Once we are operational next year, we will be looking to secure renewable electricity deals. But this is not the only area we are working on to reduce or remove our emissions”, James Young said.

According to Young, JDR is also actively working on reducing the emissions that come from some of the metals used in cable production such as copper, aluminium and steel. The company is collaborating with several suppliers to map what the CO2 equivalent emissions are for those metals and materials and look at low-carbon options.

“We have already identified some suppliers who can provide us with 100 per cent recycled metals. And we haven’t stopped there either”, Young said. “While the metals are probably the largest area that needs decarbonisation, we also have some other projects that we are working on and bringing some higher recycled content into some of the materials used in the cables.”

With some of its suppliers, JDR is looking into polymers derived from biohydrocarbons. The company is using cross-linked polyethylene and there is also an opportunity to use innovative materials that are based on bioethylene.

“We have to consider all of these things in the mix. If we do go for lower emission materials, we also have to make sure that we can secure those sustainably and introduce them into our product lines to our clients, and understand their full circularity impact”, Young explained.

At its new factory in Blyth, JDR is also doing some future-proofing as the company’s ambition is to move from the 66 kV and 132 kV array cables and step up the voltage range.

“We are also bringing higher voltage cable products to the market with 275 kV AC export cables in the pipeline. For that reason, we have also invested in our facility in Blyth to enable the introduction of additional lines in the future and to also supply even higher voltages, above 275 kV, and support the high-voltage DC cable market in the decade to come”, JDR’s James Young said.