(Bloomberg) — The U.K. is running out of time to secure the power cables it needs to meet its goal of a carbon-free power grid by the end of the decade.

“They need to speed up,” according to Christopher Guerin, CEO of Nexans SA, one of the few manufacturers of submarine power cables used for offshore wind farms and connections between Britain and Europe.

“There is a race for capacity slots,” Guerin said in an interview. “It’s starting to get a little tense, but it’s still possible.”

To meet the government’s target, the country would need to increase its interconnection capacity by around 50%, according to modeling carried out by the British network manager. This doesn’t leave much time to place orders for critical equipment.

The tight timetable for cable procurement is emblematic of the scale of the challenge the UK faces if it is to get even closer to its goal of a clean electricity grid by 2030. Although this is theoretically possible, to achieve this objective, it will be necessary to increase supply. lines and labor at an unprecedented rate.

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The UK’s electricity regulator, Ofgem, recently approved around 5 gigawatts of new connections to continental Europe. But this approval is only the first step in the project construction process.

Nexans and its competitors already have huge demand for the limited supply of specialty cables they produce. Guerin said his company was considering projects worth 20 billion euros ($21.1 billion) that could keep its factories busy beyond 2030. Potential customers should therefore reserve space at the advance if they want to purchase equipment before the end of the decade.

The UK already has a growing number of links to Europe, with cables to France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the Nordic region. Electricity flows to the market that commands the highest price and, currently, this means that electricity flows mainly from Europe to Britain. But the UK aims to reverse this trend and become a net exporter of electricity by rapidly expanding its fleet of offshore wind farms.

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