Airtricity, the Irish wind energy company, will brief MPs at the House of Commons in London today in a effort to win political support for an initiative to build a pan-European subsea electricy grid at an initial cost of €22 billion.
The company is seeking support for its Supergrid initiative, the first phase of which is a 10 gigawatt windfarm project in the North Sea that would be connected to the national electricity grids in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands.
The ultimate aim is to create a system that would link offshore windfarms in the Mediterranean to the Bay of Biscay, the Atlantic, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. This would be achieved via connections to national grid systems.
Airtricity, 51 per cent-owned by utility group NTR, says the North Sea plan would cost €22 billion. A spokesman was unable to say how much money the company was providing upfront for the project. The company started work on the initiative with the Swiss engineering group ABB last September to develop a high-voltage AC-DC network to link national grids and windfarms.
Its idea is to use big-scale interconnectivity to overcome shortfalls in the supply of wind power when the wind does not blow. The size of the undertaking meant that Europe would have access to wind power at all times because wind would always blow on one part of the network, it said. "Europe needs a reliable, secure and environmentally friendly energy supply," said Airtricity chief executive Eddie O'Connor.
"Supergrid supports that aim and will be capable of helping Europe meet its 2010 targets and achieving energy independence."
