10 August 2008

Connecting the dots

This seems an intriguing idea. I haven't seen it mentioned in the Scottish press but The Observer has the story:

Scotland is drawing up plans to build the world's longest electricity connector - to Norway - to help meet its renewable targets and end its dependence on nuclear power. The whole project could cost more than £2bn.
Jim Mather, the Scottish Executive's energy minister, will meet his Norwegian counterpart in October to discuss the proposal.
...
Norway gets almost all its electricity from hydro-power, which works by releasing water from a higher reservoir into a lower reservoir via a turbine which generates electricity. The water is then pumped back up to the higher reservoir for use later. If the 1,000km (620-mile) connector between the countries is built, when Scotland is windy and has surplus electricity, it would be exported to Norway to provide power to pump the water back up into its higher reservoirs.
When the wind does not blow in Scotland and there is a shortage of power, Norway would activate its hydro-plants to make up the shortfall. This would solve the issue of wind power's intermittency, frequently cited by critics.
Scotland wants to use the connector to provide power to North Sea oil operators. Drilling rigs and platforms use about four gigawatts of electricity, equivalent to the demand from about four cities the size of Birmingham. Currently, operators use expensive and dirty diesel generators or gas to power their facilities.

I don't know how much a nuclear power station costs but I doubt if it is much less than £2 billion in construction costs alone. If the estimated price-tag of the connector is realistic and provided it has sufficient capacity, it offers a cleaner, greener option, as well as significant cost advantages.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's a smart idea, and doubles up on potential redundancies, obviously.
But i wonder what Brown et al would make of it.
Not to mention our other unionist chums, including Geordie of Gorgie Foulkes himself.

Anonymous said...

Norway already had interconnectors with other countries doing precisely what the link to Scotland would do. It is highly unlikely that the amount of power using the Scottish interconnector could ever justify the huge investment involved

Anonymous said...

Interesting point, but can you justify it for us all, please?