Germany and the UK to exchange green energy underwater
24 May 2024 15:33
Germany has launched a major German-British energy project called NeuConnect. It involves the construction of a 725-kilometre-long submarine electricity cable between Germany, the Netherlands and the UK across the North Sea. The cable will allow both countries to exchange electricity generated by their offshore wind farms, "Komersant Ukrainian"reports, citing DW.
Initially, this interconnector will allow Germany to export surplus green electricity from its own wind farms to Britain, which is still an importer of electricity. However, Berlin expects the situation to change in a few years.
The UK has set itself an ambitious goal of increasing the capacity of its offshore wind farms to 50 GW by 2030, which is equivalent to about 40 nuclear power plants. It will then become a major exporter of cheap renewable electricity itself.
Germany is beginning to prepare to switch from exporting to importing electricity, including from the UK via the NeuConnect cable. After all, Germany’s own plans to build new power grids to transmit electricity from northern wind farms to the south of the country are being delayed.
Thus, NeuConnect opens up a new export market for German energy companies, and may eventually become a way to import cheap British “green” electricity. After all, as Mark Lenfeld, a representative of the German State Foreign Trade Agency, noted, the UK is already the second largest offshore wind energy market after China.
