Thinking in the post-subsidy era: How long is the cost reduction path of submarine cable

2020-09-01 11:13

Since the development of China's first offshore wind power project -- The Donghai Bridge project, more than ten years of uninterrupted experience accumulation, as well as the industry in the survey and design, equipment RESEARCH and development manufacturing and engineering construction and operation of the improvement, China's offshore wind power unit kilowatt cost reduced to about 15,700 yuan/kw.

However, the global offshore wind power costs and electricity prices are still falling. In 2019, France and The United Kingdom recently announced offshore wind projects with low bid prices reached 0.39 yuan/KWH (2026 grid connection) and 0.35 yuan/KWH (2023/25 grid connection), respectively. Compared with China's 0.75 yuan/KWH (2020) feed-in tariff, this figure still has a lot of room for decline. Obviously, under the background of the gradual withdrawal of national renewable energy subsidies, "cost reduction and efficiency increase" will become the primary task of offshore wind power during the 14th Five-Year Plan period in China, and also become one of the goals for enterprises in the industrial chain.
How to reduce the cost of submarine cable?
When we discuss the cost reduction of offshore wind power, we focus on the application of high-power units. Subsea cables, one of the three main hardware components along with wind turbines, foundations and towers, account for about 10% of the total cost of offshore wind. Where is the cost reduction space in this part, and how much?
The high technology content of sea cable determines its high cost. A set of figures from the General Institute of Water Planning show that the price of 35kV submarine cable is between 600-1.5 million yuan/km, and that of 220kV submarine cable is between 4-5 million yuan/km.
Unlike onshore wind, offshore wind projects require the generation of wind turbines scattered across the site to be funneled through 35kV submarine cables to offshore booster stations for use