Europe - Germany, and its neighbours plan offshore power grid

In order to give a big boost to renewable energy, Germany and eight other North Sea littoral nations have unveiled plans to build a gigantic offshore power grid which will bundle up their existing and future projects. The “North Sea Offshore Grid Initiative”, which is estimated to cost around €30 billion ($ 42,994), envisages building up a network of high tension undersea transmission lines across the North Sea.

The proposed grid will link up the offshore wind parks in the North Sea and in the Baltic Sea off the German and British coasts with the hydro power stations in Norway, tidal wave projects on the Belgian and Danish costs as well as the wind, solar and biomass power plants on the European mainland. Government representatives of Germany, Britain, France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Ireland, Luxembourg and Norway agreed in principle on the project last month after a feasibility study by their concerned ministries.

They intend to work out a project plan by the middle of this year in cooperation with Europe’s leading players in offshore power generation and distribution and to sign a memorandum of understanding by the end of this year. The project is expected to take ten years to be completed.

“The main goal of this project is to build up renewable energy systems speedily and to integrate them in a highly efficient electricity network,” said Mr Rainer Bruederle, German Federal Minister for Economy and Technology.

For more information please contact Trevor Sievert at ts@windfair.net