Europe’s Race to Wire the Deep Blue

A surge in subsea cable projects is reshaping Europe’s energy map and strengthening its bid for self-reliance

10 Nov 2025

Europe’s green ambitions are plunging beneath the waves. Across the continent, a race is under way to build subsea cables that will link offshore wind farms and knit together national grids. What was once niche infrastructure has become the backbone of Europe’s clean-energy transition.

A deal between France’s grid operator, RTE, and Nexans, a cable manufacturer, captures the scale of the effort. Worth more than €1 billion, it covers about 450 km of underwater cables connecting offshore wind farms to the mainland. Germany and Britain are pursuing similar projects, seeking to secure their future energy supplies and to strengthen trading links. The contract also cements Nexans’s place in the fast-growing market for high-voltage direct-current technology.

The subsea web is no longer merely an engineering feat; it is a strategic asset. Europacable, an industry group, has urged policymakers to embed “security by design” into new projects, with smarter monitoring and tighter control over suppliers. “Europe’s subsea infrastructure is no longer a hidden asset; it’s strategic,” the group’s latest report declares, a reminder that the cables carry geopolitical weight as well as electricity.

Analysts see this surge as a turning point. An expert at Renewables Europe said that control over subsea links increasingly determines who controls renewable power itself. Yet bottlenecks in manufacturing and rising geopolitical tensions could slow progress.

Still, optimism prevails. Demand for offshore connections and cross-border interconnectors is forecast to drive double-digit investment growth through 2030. As Europe moves toward net zero, its seabed has become both a workshop and a battlefield, where engineering prowess meets the politics of energy independence.