Neapolitan firm delivers survey work for 1 GW Italian subsea electricity link

Naples-headquartered survey contractor Next Geosolutions (NextGeo) has completed survey works for the east section of the Italian Tyrrhenian Link connecting Sicily with Campania.

NextGeo has wrapped up all the pre-installation survey tasks for the Tyrrhenian Link East branch on behalf of Italian cabling giant Prysmian.

The works included extensive marine detailed geophysical, geotechnical, UXO, archaeological and environmental survey activities along Terna’s submarine power line connecting the landing points in Sicily and in Campania with two HVDC cables, each approximately 485 kilometers long.

Additional survey tasks have been executed in the nearshore sections of the corridor, including boreholes, HDD survey, topography and geoelectrical investigations.

According to NextGeo, over 400 days of work and numerous ships were used to carry out the project, including the group-owned MPSVs NG Worker and Ievoli Ivory, as well as the MV Eco-One and other smaller nearshore vessels.

“This mission presented quite a few operational challenges, however it was successfully, efficiently and sustainably accomplished, thanks to the consistent NextGeo resilience, resources and capabilities, as well as to a close collaboration with all the teams involved in the project. We are extremely proud to actively contribute to the realisation of such a fundamental energy infrastructure,” said Giorgio Ruta, NextGeo Project Manager for the Tyrrhenian Link project.

With the Tyrrhenian Link, Terna will connect Sicily with Sardinia and the Italian peninsula through a double submarine HVDC cable link with a power capacity of 1,000 MW and a total length of about 970 kilometers.

Terna and the European Investment Bank (EIB) earlier this year inked a deal for the final tranche of the €1.9 billion financing related to the project. The link is slated to be fully operational in 2028.