Europe’s Ocean Floor Becomes a Power Highway

Prysmian and NKT lead a boom wiring the continent’s clean-energy future

30 Oct 2025

Europe’s green ambitions are being laid on the seabed. A surge in subsea power-cable projects is turning the continent’s waters into a web of high-voltage links, connecting offshore wind farms, energy islands and national grids. Over the past year, contracts worth billions of euros have been signed, making this one of Europe’s busiest periods for transmission infrastructure.

The UK’s Eastern Green Link programme, the largest of its kind, will soon connect Scotland and England with a two-gigawatt cable costing €1.9 billion. Denmark’s Bornholm Energy Island has secured a €650 million supply deal, while Italy and Tunisia are advancing the €460 million ELMED link across the Mediterranean. Together they signal a rush to knit Europe’s fragmented power markets into a single network.

Analysts call the trend both urgent and strategic. As offshore wind expands and cross-border trade intensifies, stable transmission has become a security issue as much as a climate one. “We’re witnessing the rise of a truly continental grid,” said one European energy analyst. Manufacturers such as Prysmian and NKT, able to scale production rapidly, have become indispensable.

That has spurred heavy investment. Cable makers are enlarging factories, upgrading technology and dispatching more specialised ships. Transmission operators, fearing shortages, are booking manufacturing slots long before permits are finalised, a shift that rewards the biggest and most vertically integrated suppliers.

Costs and red tape still bite. Raw materials remain expensive, and environmental approvals can drag on. Yet sentiment is buoyant. “These aren’t just cables,” observed a senior grid project manager. “They’re the arteries of Europe’s renewable future.”

As governments and utilities align on cross-border projects, the seabed is becoming the foundation of Europe’s green economy. Each kilometre of cable draws the vision of a unified, cleaner and more resilient power system a little closer, provided regulators keep up and the ships keep sailing.