Nexans reels in contract to wire landmark US wave energy test site

French company Nexans has secured a contract to provide subsea cables for the PacWave South site, the United States’ first grid-connected wave energy test facility located offshore Oregon.

Developed jointly by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the State of Oregon, and Oregon State University, PacWave represents a significant step in the American sustainable energy transition and will further solidify Nexans’ position as a pure player in sustainable electrification.

PacWave South consists of four berths that capture the energy generated from the movement of waves and each berth will produce up to 5MW of energy.

RT Casey has selected Nexans for the design, engineering and manufacturing of the 36kV subsea and terrestrial cables that will run across the ocean floor.

Nexans said it will provide the four medium voltage AC (MVAC) cables that bring the energy from the berths to shore.

The cable lengths total 80 kilometers or roughly 20 kilometers per cable, Nexans informed.

“Signing the contract for PacWave South shows Nexans’ commitment to innovation and sustainable energy solutions,” said Ragnhild Katteland, Nexans EVP Generation and Transmission Business Group.

“The future of energy generation will contain a large variety of renewable sources and PacWave’s wave energy facility will give us the knowledge necessary to further develop this new and exciting form of power generation.”

In 2022, crews completed the installation of underground conduits that will house the subsea and terrestrial cables that will carry wave-generated energy from the devices to the shoreside facility.

PacWave South’s connection to the power grid will provide wave energy developers with the ability to test the efficacy of their devices as well as mechanisms for turning the energy they capture into a commodity with value on the energy market.

The project is expected to be built and energized by 2024.

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