The Longest Lead Time
On a grey morning off the coast of Brittany, a specialised cable-laying vessel began spooling vast coils of insulated copper into the Atlantic. The work, which commenced after years of planning, marked the physical beginning of something that has existed mostly as blueprints and political promises: the Celtic Interconnector, a 700-megawatt electricity cable that will run 575 kilometres across the seabed from Finistère to County Cork . When operational — now expected in the fourth quarter of 2028 — it will be the first time Ireland's electrical grid has been directly connected to continental Europe .