Italian cabling giant Prysmian has secured €450 million in funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB) that will be used for building new production lines for extra-high-voltage submarine cables, lines for high-voltage onshore cables, and other technical improvements to existing lines.
The investment will enable Prysmian to double its production capacity for extruded cables at its three factories in Pikkala, Finland, Pozzuoli, Italy, and Gron, France, from around 2,000 kilometers a year to over 4,000.
“Prysmian is playing a key role in promoting the European energy transition. We are proud that the EIB is supporting our commitment to help build additional capacity to meet the growing demand for clean energy across the continent,” said Prysmian CEO Massimo Battaini .
“The EIB shares our unwavering commitment to innovation in our products and services to promote efficiency, which is crucial both to making the energy transition more achievable and to implementing it more quickly. This new step forward shows how the European Union is aware of the essential role our company has in achieving this transition.”
Prysmian noted that the investment would also promote the creation of new jobs, generating economic benefits for the countries involved.
The project is said to be fully in line with EIB’s climate action and environmental sustainability goals and the REPowerEU framework , which the bank has committed to support with €45 billion of additional investment by 2027.
In addition, almost half of the operations covered by the agreement between the two parties will take place in cohesion regions such as Campania in Italy and Burgundy in France, helping to address regional economic disparities and promoting more balanced and inclusive economic development.
EIB’s Vice President Gelsomina Vigliotti said: “The EIB is the EU climate bank, and this financing shows our commitment to backing clean energy transmission in Europe. This agreement with Prysmian will help achieve the REPowerEU objectives by mobilising vast resources to address the most pressing energy and environmental challenges.”
Prysmian earlier this month reported that it had performed what is said to be the industry’s first installation of an HVDC cable at a water depth of 2,150 meters.
The cable will be employed for the €1.7 billion Tyrrhenian Link , awarded in 2021 by Terna. Under the contract, Prysmian will design, supply, and install a total of over 1,500 kilometers of submarine cables to support the power exchange among Sardinia, Sicily and Campania, reinforcing the Mediterranean energy hub.
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