European Subsea Cable Report & Forecast 2015-2025 J/15/1226

May 2015

4C Offshore - OrbisEnergy Centre, Lowestoft, NR32 1XH

T: +44 (0)1502 307 037 E: info@4coffshore.com

Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary 7

2. Market Development to Date 10

3. Subsea Cables 12

4. Cable Installation 15

5. Cable Monitoring 17

6. Cable Inspection 18

7. Cable Intervention and Repairs 18

8. Cable Faults 21

9. Weather Related Installation Delays 24

10. Market Share: Array Cable Supply 27

11. Market Share: Export Cable Supply 28

12. Market Share: Interconnector Cable Supply 29

13. Market Share: Array Cable Installation 30

14. Market Share: Export Cable Installation 31

15. Market Share: Interconnector Cable Installation 33

16. At a Glance: Subsea Cable Installation Companies and Their Assets 34

17. Transmission Policy Frameworks Overview 35

18. Country Overview: Belgium 40

19. Country Overview: Denmark 43

20. Country Overview: France 45

21. Country Overview: Germany 47

22. Country Overview: Netherlands 49

23. Country Overview: United Kingdom 53

24. Costs: Cable Supply Costs 55

25. Costs: Cable Installation Costs 57

26. Costs: Capital Expenditure 58

27. Forecasting Methodology 59

28. Forecasting Results: Cable demand and expenditure to 2025 61

29. Appendix: Project Pipelines by Country 68

30. Appendix: Future Wind Farm Opportunities 72

31. Appendix: Future Interconnector Opportunities 77

32. Appendix: Offshore Wind Subsea IMR Contracts 85

33. Appendix: Offshore Wind Subsea IMR Players Schematic 87

34. Appendix: German North Sea Grid Connections 88

35. Appendix: Baltic Sea Grid Connections 89

Table of Figures

Figure 1. Summary of offshore wind subsea cable market development 2002-2014 7

Figure 2. Left: Percentage of incidents by problem and median delay length. Right: Number of incidents by delay and type of

cable. 7

Figure 3. Number of players and market leaders for subsea cable and installation since 2010 9

Figure 4. Current (April 2015) and future (2025) installed capacity for the six main European markets 9

Figure 5.Offshore Wind CAPEX spend by country summed for period 2015-2025 10

Figure 6. Left: Demand for array, export, HVDC transmission and interconnector cabling 2015-2025 (km). Right: Expenditure on

subsea cable supply and installation 2015-2025 (a portion of total CAPEX) 10

Figure 7. Water depth and distance to shore at installed or underway European projects 11

Figure 8. Percent of capacity being exported via transmission technology (MVAC, HVAC, HVDC) 11

Figure 9. Nysted's substation (HVAC transformer) and Helwin Alpha (HVDC converter station) 11

Figure 10. Offshore wind cabling to date plotted by offshore installation start year for projects to Q1 2015. From top left to

bottom right: Cumulative cable type for all countries; cumulative array cable by country; cumulative HVAC export cable by

country and cumulative MVAC export cable. 12

Figure 11. Left: Preparing for installation: array cable being wound on a carousel and Right: subsea power cable cross section 12

Figure 12. Ready for installation: export cable being wound on a carousel utilizing a tensioner 13

Figure 13. Four 66kV cable designs receiving qualification funding from the Carbon Trust's OWA. * Dry designs include an

impermeable metallic sheath (e.g. lead sheath). 13

Figure 14. Single bipole arrangement schematic 14

Figure 15. Loading HVDC onto a cable lay vessel at the factory 15

Figure 16. Reef Subsea’s Q1000 Jet trencher, Subsea 3M Cable Plough and DeepOcean's UT-1 trencher (has both jetting and

meachanical wheel cutting modes) 16

Figure 17. Typical Survey Programme for a Round 2 UK Wind Farm 18

Figure 18. Thanet Export cable replacement. Photo: Subsea Energy Solutions. 19

Figure 19. Indicative CAPEX reduction potential of transmission initiatives and cost reduction options cited by respondents.

Source: DNVGL 20

Figure 20. Left: Percentage of incidents by problem and median delay length. Right: Number of incidents by delay and type of

cable. 21

Figure 21. Actual versus expected array cable rates at Gwynt-y-Môr 24

Figure 22. Significant delays attributable to weather 25

Figure 23. Example cable installation elements and influencing metocean components. Adapted from MojoMaritime 2014 26

Figure 24. Reducing weather risk during cable installation by optimising elements of the process. Adapted from MojoMaritime,

2014 26

Figure 25. Market share: array cable manufacture since 2010 27

Figure 26. Market share: export cable manufacture since 2010 28

Figure 27. Market share: interconnector cable manufacture for on and offshore cable length. Since 2010 29

Figure 28. Market share: array cable installation since 2010 30

Figure 29. Market share: Export cable installation since 2010 31

Figure 30. Market share: interconnector installation (subsea component) 33

Figure 31. European offshore wind and interconnector subsea cable installation companies, market share, clients and assets.

*=vessel has installed interconnectors. Italics=vessel under construction 35

Figure 32. Estimated OFTO O&M expenditure per annum. *All costs inflated to 2014 values. 36

Figure 33. Results OFTO Tenders 1-3 and operations and maintenance body 37

Figure 34. Belgian Offshore Grid (BOG, configuration updated April 2015). Generating projects shown in green. 40

Figure 35. Belgium: Projects installed 41

Figure 36. Belgium: Investor types and owners for projects that are commissioned or in construction 41

Figure 37. Cumulative installations according to 4C's 2025 projection. For specific projects please see the Appendix. 42

Figure 38. Denmark: Projects installed 44

Figure 39. Denmark: Investor types and owners for projects that are commissioned or in construction 44

Figure 40. Cumulative installations according to 4C's 2025 projection. For specific projects please see the Appendix. 44

Figure 41. French offshore wind tender results. *Start years are analyst estimates, not necessarily the same as developer

communications 45

Figure 42. Supply chain investments in France 46

Figure 43. Cumulative installations according to 4C's 2025 projection. For specific projects please see the Appendix. 46

Figure 44. The extension of the higher initial remuneration has opened further investment in German offshore wind. 48

Figure 45. Progress towards goals and grid allocation to date. Baltic Sea represented by dotting. 48

Figure 46 Germany: Investor types and owners for projects that are commissioned or in construction 48

Figure 47. Annual installations according to 4C's 2025 projection; cumulative installed capacity and the cumulative capacity of all

projects in the developer pipeline. For specific projects see the Appendix. 49

Figure 48. Map of current and future Netherlands offshore wind projects 50

Figure 49. Netherlands progress to date and scale of future tenders 52

Figure 50. Cumulative installations according to 4C's 2025 projection. For specific projects please see the Appendix. 52

Figure 51. UK development to date; licensing rounds and progress to date. Note that more attrition of projects in development is

likely. 54

Figure 52. Ownership of generating and under construction projects in the UK 54

Figure 53. Annual installations according to 4C's 2025 projection, cumulative installed capacity and the cumulative capacity of all

projects in the developer pipeline. For specific projects see the Appendix. 54

Figure 54. Array cable manufacture costs versus array cable length; regression analysis and table of projects 55

Figure 55. HVAC cable manufacture costs versus array cable length; regression analysis and table of projects 56

Figure 56. HVDC cable manufacture costs and table of projects 57

Figure 57. Array cable supply costs versus array length; regression analysis and table of projects 57

Figure 58. Export cable supply costs versus length; regression analysis and table of projects 58

Figure 59. CAPEX modelling to 2025 59

Figure 60. Observed array cable lengths (km) plotted against the two predictive components (i)project capacity and (ii) number

of turbines 60

Figure 61.(i) Observed substation capacity by construction start year and (ii)number of substations by project capacity 61

Figure 62.(i) Observed turbine capacity by construction start year, and (ii) Number of confirmed turbine orders by start year and

turbine capacity 61

Figure 63. Cumulative annual offshore wind CAPEX to 2015-2025 and breakdown by country 62

Figure 64. Annual array cable demand (km) 2015-2025 by country, total array cable demand by country, supply expenditure by

year and install expenditure by year. 63

Figure 65. Annual MVAC export cable demand (km) 2015-2025 by country plus total MVAC cable demand by country. 64

Figure 66. Annual HVAC export cable demand (km) 2015-2025 by country plus total HVAC cable demand by country. 65

Figure 67. Annual HVDC export cable demand (km) 2015-2025 by country plus total HVDC cable demand by country. 66

Figure 68. European HVDC interconnector cable demand for the period 2015-2025 plus annual and cumulative CAPEX for

interconnector projects for the period 67

Figure 69. Expenditure on HVDC interconnector cable supply and installation for the period 2015-2025 67

Figure 70. Rate of installation data set : MW/Year increasing with start of offshore installation 68

Figure 71. Belgium: Project installations to 2025 69

Figure 72. Denmark: Project installations to 2025 69

Figure 73. France: Project installations to 2025 70

Figure 74. Germany: Project installations to 2025 70

Figure 75. Netherlands: project installations to 2025 71

Figure 76. United Kingdom: Project installations to 2025 71

Figure 77. Future UK offshore wind farm projects, awarded cable supply and manufacture contracts and contracts not yet

announced (-) 72

Figure 78. Future German offshore wind farm projects, awarded cable supply and manufacture contracts and contracts not yet

announced (-) 73

Figure 79. HVDC Transmission cable supply and installation contracts for German North Sea Converter Stations 74

Figure 80. Future Belgian offshore wind farm projects, awarded cable supply and manufacture contracts and contracts not yet

announced (-) 74

Figure 81. Future Danish offshore wind farm projects, awarded cable supply and manufacture contracts and contracts not yet

announced (-) 75

Revisions

Revision A1

Date 13th May 2015

Prepared Richard Aukland and Richard Garlick

Revision A2

Changes Minor edits

Date 21st May 2015

Prepared Richard Aukland

Checked and approved by Richard Aukland - Director of Research

This document has been prepared in good faith on the basis of information available at the date of publication. 4C Offshore does not guarantee

or warrant the accuracy, reliability, completeness or currency of the information in this publication nor its usefulness in achieving any purpose.

Readers are responsible for assessing the relevance and accuracy of the content of this publication. 4C Offshore will not be liable for any loss,

damage, cost or expense incurred or arising by reason of any person using or relying on information in this publication

4C Offshore :European Subsea Cable Report & Forecast 2015-2025 | 7

2. Market Development to Date

Early offshore wind projects in Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden and the UK were all near shore and shallow water with an average of

6m water depth and 4km to shore (Figure 1). These pioneering projects included Denmark’s 20 turbine Middelgrunden project and

Irene Vorrink in the Netherlands. The proximity to shore allowed all projects before 2002 to avoid the requirement of high voltage

transmission and instead use 33kV cables similar to those used for array cabling to export to shore.

As projects became larger and were sited further from shore it became economic to introduce an offshore substation for stepping

the voltage up from medium to high in order to reduce transmission losses. Two Danish projects, Horns Rev 1 (160MW, 18km) and

Nysted (165.5MW, 11km) were the first to use offshore substations in 2002. Since then HVAC transmission has become the most

common solution. Projects in the German EEZ, necessarily far from shore (often in excess of 100km) due to the presence of the

protected Wadden Sea National Park and busy shipping lanes are connected to shore via high voltage direct current (HVDC) in order

to reduce electrical losses associated with AC transmission.

Figure 2 shows the proportion of capacity currently installed or underway that is being exported via the different technologies across

Europe. HVAC is currently the most prevalent, with HVDC only used in Germany at present. MVAC is still being used on projects

today, indeed the two European projects entering construction in Q1 2015 (Vattenfall’s Kentish Flats Extension project and

Westermeerwind in the Netherland’s Ijsselmeer lake) are both close to shore and exporting at 33kV. This is reflected in the

anomalously low water depth and distance from shore for projects underway in Q1 2015 (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Water depth and distance to shore at installed or underway European projects

Figure 2. Percent of capacity being exported via transmission technology (MVAC, HVAC, HVDC)

Figure 3. Nysted's substation (HVAC transformer) and Helwin Alpha (HVDC converter station)

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Deeper & further

4C Offshore :European Subsea Cable Report & Forecast 2015-2025 | 8

Between 2002 and 2014 Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) for offshore wind cable installations averaged 30% year on year

growth (Figure 4) with over 6000km of subsea cable installed at the end of 2014. 51% of cabling requirements are array cable and

31% HVAC export cable. By length only 7% is MVAC and 11% HVDC. Cable demand is driven largely by the UK and German markets

with Denmark, Netherlands and Belgium contributing less. France, Norway and Portugal have no commercial scale deployments to

date. It can be seen that MVAC export cabling is absent from the German market where projects have not been built close to shore.

The appearance of the growth to decline in 2015 is misleading, this is a consequence of the fact that only Q1 projects have been

included in these charts, a further 1.47GW of projects will start during the year. By comparison 2014 was a light year, with only

417MW entering construction.

Figure 4. Offshore wind cabling to date plotted by offshore installation start year for projects to Q1 2015. From top left to bottom right: Cumulative cable type for all countries; cumulative array cable by country; cumulative HVAC export cable by country and cumulative MVAC export cable.

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51% Array Cable

30% HVAC Cable 12% MVAC Cable

4C Offshore :European Subsea Cable Report & Forecast 2015-2025 | 9

10. Market Share: Array Cable Supply

Figure 5. Market share: array cable manufacture since 2010

Array Cable (km)

NEXANS 491

NSW 406

DRAKA OFFSHORE 399

JDR CABLE SYSTEMS 319

NKT CABLES 191

PARKER SCANROPE 162

OTHER 195

COMPANY PROJECTS

- Anholt (2011): 160km for 111x Siemens SWT-3.6-120 turbines

- Lincs (2011): 85.30km for 75x Siemens SWT-3.6-120 turbines

- Riffgat (2012): 24km for 30x Siemens SWT-3.6-120 turbines

- Borkum Riffgrund I (2013): 62km for 78x Siemens SWT-4.0-120 turbines

- West of Duddon Sands (2013): 107km for 108x Siemens SWT-3.6-120 turbines

- Westermost Rough (2013): 53km for 35x Siemens SWT-6.0-154 turbines

- BARD Offshore 1 (2010): 107km for 80x BARD 5.0MW turbines

- Trianel Windpark Borkum Phase 1 (2011): 65km for 40x Areva Wind M5000-116 turbines

- Global Tech I (2012): 122km for 80x Areva Wind M5000-116 turbines

- Humber Gateway (2013): 82km for 73x Vestas V112-3.0MW turbines

- Kentish Flats Exension (2015): 30km for 15x MHI-Vestas V112-3.3MW turbines

- Walney Phase 2 (2011): 52km for 51x Siemens SWT-3.6-120 turbines

- Gwynt y Môr (2012): 148km for 160x Siemens SWT-3.6-107 turbines

- Kårehamn (2012): 18km for 16x Vestas V112-3.0MW turbines

- Teesside (2012): 10km for 27x Siemens SWT-2.3-93 turbines

- EnBW Baltic 2 (2013): 84km for 80x Siemens SWT-3.6-120 turbines

- Butendiek (2014): 87km for 80x Siemens SWT-3.6-120 turbines

- London Array Phase 1 (2011): 209km for 175x Siemens SWT-3.6-120 turbines

- Meerwind Ost/Sud (2012): 108km for 80x Siemens SWT-3.6-120 turbines

- Belwind Alstom Haliade Demonstration (2013): 1.8km for 1x Alstom Power Haliade 150-6MW turbine

- EnBW Baltic 1 (2010): 21km for 21x Siemens SWT-2.3-93 turbines

- Walney Phase 1 (2010): 48km for 51x Siemens SWT-3.6-107 turbines

- Amrumbank West (2013): 90km for 80x Siemens SWT-3.6-120 turbines

- Eneco Luchterduinen (2014): 32km for 43x Vestas V112-3.0MW turbines

- DanTysk (2012): 111km for 80x Siemens SWT-3.6-120 turbines

- Northwind (2013): 51km for 72x Vestas V112-3.0MW turbines

Announced Contracts not yet Supplied

Dudgeon

Nordsee One

Sandbank

Borkum Riffgrund II

Gode Wind 01 and 02

Gemini

Nordergründe

23%

19%

18%

15%

9%

7%

9%

Nexans

NSW

Draka Offshore

JDR Cable Systems

NKT Cables

Parker Scanrope

Other

4C Offshore :European Subsea Cable Report & Forecast 2015-2025 | 10

22. Country Overview: Netherlands

Context and Ambition

The Fourth Balkenende cabinet (dissolved in 2010) envisaged a large role for offshore wind, projecting over 5GW by 2020 to assist in

meeting the 14.5% share of gross final energy consumption to be generated from renewable sources. However, the incoming Rutte

Cabinet I (dissolved in 2012) found itself operating in the context of global recession and chose to realign subsidies in favour of

competition rather than industrial support, effectively grinding the industry to a halt.

With petrochemicals, greenhouse horticulture and transport accounting for a major share of the Dutch economy, the Netherlands

has a high per capita energy consumption. Much energy is imported, about a third of which is consumed and the remainder

exported as crude oil or oil products. Compared with other European countries, the Netherlands has relatively large fossil fuel

reserves with approximately twenty years of gas reserves.

In 2013 the government published the “National Energy Agreement for Sustainable Growth” outlining a growth path defined by

energy and climate objectives alongside gains in competitiveness, employment and exports. This supports long term aims within an

international context, to achieve a completely sustainable energy supply system by 2050. Included were agreements to scale up

renewable energy generation from 4.4% of total energy consumption in 2012 to 16% by 2023 and 14% by 2020 plus a target of 4450

MW operational offshore wind capacity by 2023 inclusive of the existing 1GW of secured capacity, to be supported through €18

billion of subsidies over five tender rounds.

Routes to Market

In order to implement the objectives of the Energy Agreement an offshore wind energy bill has been drafted (April 2015) outlining

the new permitting and subsidy process for the first two sites of the Borssele wind farm zone (Figure 6). This will be the first tender

in a series of five planned to secure 4450 MW of operational offshore wind capacity by 2023.

Tender areas for development are restricted to those designated in the National Water Plan. Within areas, plots (kavels) are defined

within which the wind farm can be built and under what conditions, based on the outcome of an environmental impact report and

appropriate assessment. For each plot soil investigations and wind resource data will be made public to facilitate understanding of

risks prior to bidding for subsidy. A new combined application procedure is being introduced for both licence and subsidy with the

winner of the SDE+ subsidy receiving an exclusive development permit (‘windvergunning’). The licence will combine the relevant

licences needed under multiple acts, expediting development and reducing costs by an estimated 10%. The lowest bidder below the

set maximum for the tender round is awarded the subsidy. The original suggested benchmark starting point for necessary offshore

wind cost reductions is an average of €150/MWh in 2014, with an expected cost reduction of EUR 5 per MWh per year.

The first subsidy applications are planned to be submitted from December 2015 to 31st March 2016, with bids for site I, II or both

sites accepted. Winners will be those with the lowest per kWh subsidy requirement. Maximum bids are not yet defined but

suggested to be €150/MWh for a period of 15 years, a significant reduction on earlier proposals. The park must be operational

within five years of the subsidy decision.

4C Offshore :European Subsea Cable Report & Forecast 2015-2025 | 11

Figure 6. Map of current and future Netherlands offshore wind projects

Development to Date

Two commercial scale parks are currently operating in the Netherlands, 108MW Offshore Windpark Egmond Aan Zee (OWEZ)

located 10km off the shore of Egmond aan Zee and 120MW Princes Amalia, 23km off the shore of Ijmuiden. Both started

construction in 2006 under the so called Round 1 tender supported through the MEP (Environmental Quality Electricity Production)

subsidy scheme, the precursor to the SDE scheme.

In Round 2 twelve permits were granted, of which three were awarded SDE subsidies in 2010 following the tender process. From a

total available budget of €4.5bn the Gemini project (formally comprised of BARD’s Buitengaats and ZeeEnergie projects) received a

maximum subsidy of €3.6bn and Eneco’s Lucterduinen (formally known as Q10) received the remaining €989m.

129MW Luchterduinen, located 23km offshore from Noordwijk entered construction in July 2014 with full operation expected late

2015. Gemini (Northland, Siemens, HVC, Van Oord) began offshore cable work in March 2015 with full commissioning of the 600MW

expected in 2017. The remaining nine Round 2 permits which have failed to secure a subsidy will lapse when the new energy bill

comes into force. Excluding the nearshore 144MW Westermeerwind project, total offshore capacity commissioned or under

construction totals 957MW.

The SDE subsidies were awarded during a tender process in 2010. Parties with a building permit submitted a bid (€/MWh) which was

corrected to allow for the distance to shore. Subsidies are valid for the first 2900 full load hours over 15 years, with payment equal

to the difference between the bid price and the reference price. BARD’s bid price is reported to be €170/MWh excluding the

distance correction.

Borssele Site IV

2018 Tender

Borssele Site III

Prinses Amaliawindpark

Egmond aan Zee

Eneco Luchterduinen

GeminiGemini

2019 Tender

2017 Tender

Borssele Site I

Borssele Site II

Lely

Westermeerwind

Irene Vorrink

Netherlands

4C Offshore :European Subsea Cable Report & Forecast 2015-2025 | 12

Figure 7. Netherlands progress to date and scale of future tenders

Forecast to 2025

Following on from Westermeerwind and Gemini, remaining

installations to 2025 will be driven by the tender rounds

towards the government target of 4450MW. The 4C mid case

growth scenario here has assumed a two-year delay in progress

such that a full build-out will not be achieved in the forecast

time frame. This is a rational assumption given the delays seen

in all offshore tender plans in all European countries to date.

Figure 8. Cumulative installations according to 4C's 2025 projection. For specific projects please see the Appendix.

Summary Strengths and Weaknesses Strengths Weaknesses

Over 1GW installed or committed to date.

Revised enthusiasm for offshore wind under the 2013 Energy

Agreement, with a target of 4450MW operational by 2023.

Streamlined permitting being legislated. Tender areas already

undergone preliminary screening.

Clear plan for evenly distributed tenders from 2015-2019

Logistically suitable ports for construction and maintenance

Future grid not dependent on offshore HVDC technology

Previous postponement of offshore wind development and a

habit of new Cabinets to change policy.

Emphasis on reduction in costs as requirement for tenders.

Scrapping of existing licenses will cost developers money

Gemini, despite having been awarded a subsidy in 2010 did not

enter construction until 2015 due to delays in reaching financial

close - the project economics were improved through redesign.

Early Demonstration, 19MW

Round 1, 228MW

Round 2, 729MW

Nearshore, 144MW

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

Commissioned In Construction Future 700MW Tender

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