Connecting Ireland to France, the UK to Belgium and Germany to Sweden – passing via offshore farms and hub connections – there could be a new network of under-sea electricity cables bringing electricity from where it is created out at sea to where it is consumed.
And new research published today has found that such an interconnected grid could be cheaper than originally expected – an offshore electricity grid in the North and Baltic seas, as opposed to cables that connect individual offshore wind farms to the shore, could in fact result in a €14 billion reduction in investment costs.
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The European Union’s energy import bill last year totalled a massive €355.15 billion – that’s slightly more than the annual wealth of Poland in 2010 (GDP was around €341 billion). Take that amount and share it between the EU’s 503 million citizens and it comes to €706.8 a year.
Divide it again per working day and you get €2.70 – in other words every single working day of the year EU citizens are paying €2.70 on fossil fuel imports – the equivalent to an expensive cup of coffee every day.
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Brazil, the largest and most populated nation in South America, is much in the news recently with stories discussing wind power’s vast potential for growth, the sector’s increasingly robust supply chain and the need to lower generation costs.
According to a Renewable Energy World article published on Wednesday, wind power and other renewables are set to see their contribution to the country’s electricity supply increase from eight per cent to 16 per cent by 2020.
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The Chair of the UK’s Energy and Climate Change Committee, Tim Yeo, has highlighted the benefits that a Europe-wide electricity grid would bring to the UK.
In an article published by Renewable Energy Focus he said that the UK’s electricity system is “the least interconnected of all European countries.”
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Energy prices in Europe are too high because the market for electricity is not yet functioning on an EU level, Michael Köhler, Head of Cabinet for Günther Oettinger, European Commissioner for energy, said at a public debate hosted by EWEA.
But to secure a functioning EU single market for electricity, the continent needs a Europe-wide electricity grid, he said on Thursday 22 September.
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