French cable maker taking steps to improve eco-balance of power cables

France-headquartered cabling firm Nexans has developed a material for improved eco-balance of power cables in partnership with aluminium producer Trimet.

In a joint development project, the two companies have developed a material with recycled aluminium content for the production of aluminium rod used in electrical cables.

The new product is said to be able to meet the high technical requirements on the mechanical properties and conductivity of the alloy while reducing the product’s carbon footprint.

According to Nexans, melting and recycling of aluminium scrap require only a fraction of the energy needed to produce primary aluminium. However, recycled aluminium contains impurities that adversely affect the material’s specific properties.

The collaborative project aimed to coordinate optimized raw material supply and innovative material development.

Nexans has refined the sorting of aluminium scrap at its production sites in Europe through RecyCâbles, a Nexans-Suez joint venture, while gearing its collection to recycling for electrical cables.

“Our project shows that recycling offers enormous potential to reduce CO₂ emissions. I am proud that Nexans can now offer its customers a product that combines superior quality while ensuring a higher level of circular economy. Nexans thus pursues its strategy to constantly look for new sources of value for its customers,” said Vincent Dessale, Chief Operating Officer at Nexans.

Nexans said it is planning to maximize the use of aluminium rod with recycled aluminium content in 2023, expected to enable the company to meet its customers’ growing demand for products with a favorable eco-balance.

The company recently reached a new “milestone for the development of a resilient interconnected European grid and the integration of renewable energy” with the completion of a transient overvoltage test (TOV) on a 525 kV DC cable system in accordance with new high-voltage direct current (HVDC) recommendations.

Using SuperGrid Institute‘s High Voltage testing facility, the DC cable system passed several sequences of damaged oscillating voltage tests at both 350 Hz and 6 kHz.

Nexans is also part of the SCARLET (Superconducting cables for sustainable energy transition) project, which is being funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program.