Prysmian secures land for USD-200m subsea cable factory in Massachusetts

Italian cable manufacturer Prysmian SpA (BIT:PRY) has struck a land acquisition deal in Somerset, Massachusetts, where it will build a subsea transmission cable factory to serve the US offshore wind industry.

Prysmian said on Thursday that the cable manufacturing facility will be installed across a 47-acre (19-ha) site it has purchased at the 1.6-GW Brayton Point coal-fired power plant in Somerset, which was decommissioned in 2017. The contract for the purchase was signed with CDC Commercial Development Company, with the deal to be finalised once the construction plan is cleared by state regulators.

The Italian group estimates it will need USD 200 million (EUR 175.9m) to realise the project.

The plan for the factory was a component of the 1.2-GW Commonwealth Wind project of Avangrid Renewables, a unit of Avangrid Inc (NYSE:AGR), and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), which at end-2021 was selected in Massachusetts’ third offshore wind solicitation. Apart from Commonwealth Wind, it will also make cables for Avangrid’s 804-MW Park City Wind project in Connecticut.

The site at Brayton Point was identified by Avangrid and Prysmian as it offers large acreage and “ideal” waterfront industrial locations. Prysmian noted that the final plan depends on a notice to proceed from Avangrid under its cabling contracts for the two offshore projects.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.879)

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