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Prysmian: Innovating Today for the Market of Tomorrow

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Prysmian: Innovating Today for the Market of Tomorrow

Innovation is a strategic pillar that has characterized Prysmian since its origins, and it affects all dimensions of the company: from the growth of new products, developed taking into consideration their added value in terms of sustainability, decarbonization and social impact initiatives. 

Prysmian’s ability to innovate is what makes the company as a market leader, with a track record of delivering products that are smarter and more sustainable.

Prysmian’s innovation mission is to foster customer intimacy to drive the future, accelerate of business impact from sustainable innovations while shifting from a cost mindset to a growth mindset. The enablers are rooted in our strong values of drive (the power of passion), simplicity (the power of simplification) and teamwork (the power of collaboration). We focus on quality and high qualified personnel to identify innovative and efficient solutions and technologies in order to create new products and services that allow us to be one step ahead of our competitors. We work to create enabling solutions for overall system costs optimization, to lower environmental impact, and to add value for customers.

The vast majority of submarine and land HVDC cable systems are devoted to the energy transition, contributing to a more sustainable future. Nevertheless, Prysmian is intensively working to develop new technologies and reengineer the existing ones under the umbrella of the recently launched E-Path label, which embraces services and projects consistent with our strategy to be a solution provider. The E-Path label is a holistic design-for-sustainability model which is using six recognized and measurable criteria and in line with the main regulatory frameworks and requirements, with a very specific focus on cable products: carbon footprint, absence of substances of very high concern, recyclability/circularity, recycling input rate, environmental benefits, and cable transmission efficiency.

The main stream for sustainable innovation flows through the roll out of our “Design For Sustainability (D4S)” methodology across the all the projects: from consolidating intrinsically sustainable technologies such as P-laser (fully recyclable end of life and low carbon footprint) and synthetic armors which reduce joule losses, to the introduction in the upcoming years of products with low carbon metals, recycled metals and plastics, leadfree solutions for submarine applications (both insulation and protection layers) and eliminating SF6, on of the most impactful greenhouse effect gases, from our extra high voltage testing components from 117 kTn of C02 in 2021 to 15 and committed to deliver a further reduction by the end of 2024.

The true core of Prysmian’s differentiation is our ability to master and manage a multi-technology portfolio, along with the highest production, engineering, and installation capacity in the market. Indeed, last July, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Prysmian, signed a new €450 million finance contract to facilitate electricity transmission and distribution in Europe. Prysmian will use the EIB funds to build new production lines for extra-high-voltage submarine cables, lines for high-voltage onshore cables and other technical improvements to existing lines. The EIB-financed investment will enable Prysmian to double its production capacity for extruded cables at its three factories in Pikkala (Finland), Arco Felice (Italy) and Gron (France). This will help to meet EU targets for clean energy transmission via submarine cable solutions and long-distance interconnections, improving the integration and efficiency of renewable energy. In addition, Prysmian is investing substantially in the new excellence center of Quattordio (Italy), fully dedicated to electrical and mechanical testing of submarine and HVDC cables.

As part of the investment the progress of the construction of the sister ship to the Leonardo da Vinci cable laying vessel, Monna Lisa with her green improvements such as lower C02 emissions thanks to the shore connection and an energy storage system with double the battery capacity. Furthermore, the construction of the new and largest cable laying vessel and a new nearshore barge, are proceeding on time. These additional vessels will increase our fleet to 8 vessels in 2027. 

In addition, Prysmian invested close to 1% of turnover into R&D worldwide in 2023 with the total commitment to be the preferred provider of differentiated network solutions for our customers.