Nexans has been awarded a contract by StatoilHydro ASA with an estimated value of 24 million Euro, to supply the submarine export cables for the Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm project, located approximately 20 km offshore from Sheringham, on England’s north Norfolk coast.

The full execution of the cable contract is subject to offshore development consent from the UK government and a final investment decision during the 2nd half of 2008 for the Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm project.

The contract scope includes engineering, procurement and construction of two 22 km 145 kV XLPE* submarine export cables, and a spare cable with associated equipment. An optical fibre cable manufactured at Nexans site in Rognan will also be included. The power cables will be manufactured at Nexans’ factory in Halden, Norway for delivery in mid April 2010.

The Sheringham Shoal wind farm, covering an area of 35 km2, is located in shallow water averaging 20 m water depth. If sanctioned, the wind farm will be developed with 88 wind turbine generators with a unit rating of 3.6 MW. The turbines will be connected via a network of infield cables to two offshore substations. The total installed generation capacity will be 315 MW and, in an average year, approximately 1.1 TWh of power will be exported to the mainland through the two submarine export cables which will be connected to the regional distribution network at Salle substation. Completion and production start-up of the wind farm is planned for 3rd quarter 2011.

The Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm will be developed by Scira Offshore Energy Ltd., a company established specifically for this development and owned 50 % by the Norwegian company StatoilHydro and 50 % by the Dutch company Evelope Project, a subsidiary in the Econcern B.V. group.