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Nine European countries have today signed a major agreement to develop the world's first large-scale offshore wind energy grid in the North and Irish seas, providing a boost to the continent's fast-expanding offshore wind industry. UK energy minister Lord Hunt joined with ministers from Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden and Ireland to sign the agreement on the sidelines of today's European Council meeting in Brussels.

Resulting from a five-year development programme involving Nexans’ technology centres in France and Belgium, this innovative overhead line technology consists in a thermal resistant aluminium conductor wrapped around a composite carbon core. Compared with a traditional ACSR (Aluminium Conductor Steel Reinforced) which uses steel core, the composite carbon core of the same diameter is much lighter and 50 percent stronger. Most importantly, the carbon core’s coefficient of thermal expansion is roughly one tenth of that of steel, so it expands (and ‘sags’) much less when heated by the high current flowing in the conductor, enabling the vital safety clearances to be maintained between the conductor and the ground, even at high operating temperatures.

“We are very proud that, following a Europe-wide tender process, Infrabel has awarded Nexans the contract to supply most of its 1 kV power distribution cables for the next two years. This will amount to more than 5’300 km of cables, 90 percent of which will be manufactured by our Belgian units. The remaining 10 percent will be produced by other Nexans plants across Europe,”

Downstream aluminium producer Sapa Group will close its aluminium tubing plant in Seneffe, Belgium, after evaluating a number of restructuring options, the company said on Thursday November 7

Cambridge University, University of Aalto at Helsinki, AGH Krakow University of Science and Technology, Aurubis Belgium, National Grid Electricity Transmission, Peugeot Citroen Automobiles, PE International, KME Germany, Outotec Oy, Institute of Occupational Medicine, Invro, Cambridge Nanomaterials Technology, Wieland-Werke, Nexans France.

In a memorandum of understanding, ministers from Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden as well as the UK, agreed to explore the regulatory, legal, planning and technical issues that need to be addressed to create the grid.