World’s largest cable laying vessel begins Phase 2 of energy highway

The NeuConnect project, aiming to establish the first direct energy interconnector between the UK and Germany, has reached a significant milestone with the commencement of Phase 2 offshore cabling activities. The Italian firm Prysmian’s Leonardo da Vinci, the world’s largest cable-laying vessel weighing 36,400 tons, has begun laying 140 kilometers (86 miles) of underwater cable in UK waters, about 22 kilometers off the Kent coast. This follows the completion of Phase 1 in November 2024, which involved laying 56 kilometers of onshore and subsea cables. The entire interconnector will span 725 kilometers (450 miles) of High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) submarine power cable, traversing British, Dutch, and German waters, and will have a capacity of 1.4 gigawatts—enough to supply electricity to approximately 1.5 million homes. In addition to offshore cabling, progress is advancing onshore with converter stations being constructed at