Yesterday, Europacable had the opportunity to join the panel debate on “Competitiveness & Supply Chains” at the Offshore High-level event held in Bruges. The event was jointly hosted by EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson and the Belgian Presidency of the EU Energy Council, Tinne van der Straeten, the Belgian Energy Minister.
With over €4bn of investments announced in 2023, Europe’s leading cable manufacturers are responding to the increased demand for land and submarine cables to connect offshore renewables and interconnect Europe. With that, the grid technology components like cables will be available.
This said, a bottleneck may arise from securing sufficient skilled engineers and project managers to build Europe’s future grids. To attract and keep future talent, Europe’s grid technology companies need to be attractive, vibrant and successful. For European cable manufacturers to secure their global technology leadership, the following three needs have to be accounted for:
- confirmed demand visibility beyond 2030;
- fair market conditions; and
- continued and coherent recognition of grid technologies like cables in future policy dossiers, notably CBAM and CRMA.
Europacable would like to applaud the Belgian Council Presidency for hosting this dynamic exchange in Bruges. It is only through such exchanges and fora that Europe will be able to build the grids that it needs.