US subsea cable facility breaks ground

Oceantic Network, a non-profit organisation that aims to advance the offshore renewable energy industry and local supply chain in the US, has reported the groundbreaking of LS GreenLink USA’s new cable facility in Chesapeake, Virginia, this week.  It is the state’s first offshore wind manufacturing facility. 

The manufacturing facility is a first for Korea-based LS Cable & System and ‘represents a substantial investment in the American supply chain that will supply submarine power cables for domestic and international offshore wind projects for a project global capacity of more than 380GW of offshore wind by 2030’, Oceantic says.

Cables made at the factory are expected to be used in conjunction with Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, a $10.8 billion wind farm comprising 176 wind turbines off the coast of Virginia Beach, generating 2.6GW of  energy.

The 98-acre cable facility, which will produce High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cables to transport power from the turbines to the onshore power grid, will cost $700 million (€615 million) and provide 330 permanent full-time jobs, Oceantic says.

“This $700 million investment is a testament to the global industry’s commitment to the US market, creating hundreds of long-term American jobs and manufacturing American-made energy components for the pipeline of domestic and international offshore wind projects,” said Oceantic Network CEO Liz Burdock. “Thanks to the leadership of Dominion Energy, support from Governor Youngkin and other elected officials, and cornerstone supply chain investments like this, Virginia is rapidly emerging as a premier offshore wind hub in the US.”