Invited participant.

The term ‘cable innovation’ covers a wide range of opportunities and ideas which, if implemented, could reduce environmental impact and/or deliver wider industry benefit. When using the term ‘cable innovation’ the workshop will be considering what processes, systems, options, and designs could be improved or changed throughout the project lifecycle. This could include:

 The economic/financial arrangements in the OWF industry, including marine warranty, maintenance, economic and organisational set-up (e.g. what can be learned from telecommunication and oil and gas industries)
 Strategic planning and pre-feasibility (e.g. multi-project cable corridors such as used in Japan, New Zealand and Australia, exclusion zones etc)
 Routing design and consenting (e.g. strategic oversight and approaches to consenting where there is a known requirement for licensing multiple cables in an area e.g. the Celtic Sea)
 Detailed cable design and installation (e.g. innovation in surface laid cable armouring or protection designs and materials; innovation in cable burial depth requirements)
 Vessels and installation machinery (e.g. innovation in cable lay/burial/protection vessels and innovation in cable burial tools and methodologies)
 Operation and maintenance approaches (e.g. Insurance/pooled resources such as the Atlantic Cable Maintenance Agreement, to self-owned maintenance capability)
 Building upon ideas and innovation from other sectors (e.g. standardisation of cabling and jointing)
 Innovation in data and support services (e.g. remote cable monitoring and novel survey techniques, autonomous survey vehicles, big data, AI)

Outcome: The “Innovation in Cables” report at the end of May 2024 will be for use by Defra as part of the wider Offshore Wind Environmental Standards programme of work.