Wind turbines out at sea need a thick strong cable to connect them to the electricity system. Cables, like the one in the picture, can carry a lot of electricity and are not affected by the harsh environment of the sea bed. They need to be self insulating and self protecting unlike onshore overhead lines which rely on air and distance to ground. Not only is the cable strong, it’s also smart. It contains 48 fibre optic lines, allowing high speed digital communication along the power network for optimum performance of systems on the network, or even for commercial use.
This submarine (undersea) cable is a sample of a type used in 2010 to export power from wind turbines. Once the power has passed through an offshore substation which steps up the volts from the turbines (33kv), the cable takes it over the long distance to our power grid - hence the size! To give you an idea, its capacity is 132000 volts - versus 240 in the average home!. It was made by Prysmian and is of a type used in Vattenfall's Thanet offshore wind farm, the largest in the UK. Wind farms scheduled to be built in England's north-west between 2010 and 2020 will use cables like this.
This section was kindly donated to MOSI by manufacturer Prysmian, and Siemens, who specify cables like this in wind farms designed in Manchester. It’s only about 30 cm high and 25 cm in diameter but still weighs about as much as an average 2 year old!!!
Imagine the weight of 30km and trying to lay it in the North Sea!
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