Aquora has launched as a Scotland-based cable installation and manufacturing business, aiming to ease high-voltage cable constraints in the UK and Europe as offshore wind deployment accelerates.
The company, formerly known as XLCC, said it is entering the market after 8.4 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity was awarded in the UK’s latest AR7 auction round.
Aquora will initially focus on cable installation, deploying a new cable-lay vessel with cables supplied by Orient Cables, the company said. Manufacturing capacity in Scotland is planned at a later stage, once the business establishes client relationships and a project pipeline.
The move comes as developers warn that shortages of installation vessels and high-voltage cables are becoming a key bottleneck for delivering new offshore wind projects.
“Securing the UK’s transition to homegrown, low-carbon power is constrained not by generation, but by lack of infrastructure,” said Ragnhild Katteland, Aquora’s chief executive officer designate.
“Developers need cable installation capacity now – not in a decade’s time,” she added.
Katteland said Aquora’s phased approach is designed to meet immediate market demand while creating a commercially viable pathway to domestic cable manufacturing.
“Aquora will meet that market demand, and by delivering at pace create a financeable path to cable manufacturing in Scotland,” she said.
Executive chairman designate Lewis Gillies said the company aims to strengthen the UK’s energy supply chain resilience.
“Aquora will protect our energy security and develop industrial capability in the UK,” Gillies said, adding that the business would help unlock a critical constraint in offshore wind deployment and build strategic autonomy in a nationally important part of the energy sector.
