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The French cable manufacturer unveiled new low-carbon products for large-scale PV projects.
French cable manufacturer Nexans has launched a low-carbon product for large-scale PV projects.
Cables are often seen as a commodity, considered at the very end of a project. However, Nexans states that, on the contrary, they are one of the elements that can influence the economic profitability and carbon impact of a photovoltaic project, especially in France, where strict carbon footprint rules are in place for utility-scale PV tenders.
“In general, the developer sizes his cable according to the peak load of his photovoltaic plant, which is often higher than the actual needs, which results in additional costs,” Elyette Roux, Nexans managing director and vice president of global business unit leading energy transition, told pv magazine France.
“Depending on the characteristics of the connection such as type of soil, solar panels, presence or absence of storage, or distance from the source station, we have a certain number of standardized elements acquired with experience and which allow us to suggest to our customers several optimized sizing scenarios, according to the levels of risk that they are prepared to accept.”
The manufacturer also said the carbon impact of its products meets corporate social responsibility (CSR) requirements of customers willing to have their solar parks certified with the PEP Ecopassport, which certifies the environmental impact of electrical products and climate engineering in France.
According to the company, the production of one kilometer of power grid cable currently generates a volume of CO2 representing two to three times the average annual emissions per capita in France. These emissions mainly come from the aluminum conductor, which alone represents between 70% and 90% of the total footprint, followed by plastics, transport and the manufacturing process.
This is why Nexans has been offering underground and overhead HTA and LV cables since 2023 that guarantee a minimum reduction of 35% in greenhouse gas emissions compared to standard cables. To achieve this, it uses 100% low-carbon aluminum, produced using 100% decarbonized energy, and 10 to 50% recycled plastics in the insulation and/or sheath.
The low-carbon cables are produced in its factories based in Jeumont and Bourg-en-Bresse, which benefited from an investment of €15 million ($16.4 million) million euros last August. In order to increase its source of cables for recycling, Nexans also optimized the sorting of aluminum waste at its production sites in Europe through Recycâbles, a Nexans-Suez joint venture, with a view to reintegrating them into the production of electrical cables.
At the same time, the company also set up a buy-back circuit for all types of end-of-life cables, whether copper or aluminum, from its customers and partners. |
