{"id":5472,"date":"2015-04-01T21:07:39","date_gmt":"2015-04-01T20:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=5472"},"modified":"2015-04-01T21:07:39","modified_gmt":"2015-04-01T20:07:39","slug":"interconnector-interconnections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=5472","title":{"rendered":"Interconnector-interconnections"},"content":{"rendered":"

"Loch<\/a>This week the worlds longest interconnector has been announced between the UK and Norway.\u00a0 (An interconnector is an international transmission line that connects two countries.)\u00a0 In our book<\/a> we looked at the problems that switching to renewable electricity on a large scale will bring due to the variability of renewable energy output.\u00a0 You should read our book for full details, but there are a number of solutions<\/a> all of which have their pros and cons.<\/p>\n

One of these solutions is to use an interconnector and send your excess power to your neighbours.\u00a0 Gradually a European interconnector network is taking shape which will allow the sharing of electricity. \u00a0 So for example if its very windy in one part of Europe then the power can be sent somewhere else.<\/p>\n

The UK currently has three international ones, one which runs to France built in the 60’s but more recently upgraded to 2GWp capacity, a newer one to the Netherlands with a capacity of about 1GWp and a very new interconnector to Ireland (o.5GWp).\u00a0 There is also an internal one to Northern Ireland (pictured).\u00a0 There are 5 additional<\/a> ones planned in addition to the Norway interconnector, to France, Ireland and Denmark.<\/p>\n

The new 1.4GWp UK\/Norway\u00a0interconnector is being sold as being a two way street, in other words its an opportunity for us to sell our power to the Norwegians.\u00a0 This seems unlikely.\u00a0\u00a0 Norway gets almost 99% of its power from mature hydro systems.\u00a0 Certainly at the moment the UK imports far more electricity from Holland and France than it exports to them.\u00a0 (The opposite is true for both Irish interconnectors.)\u00a0 The reasons for this have been over the last few years the utilities have been reluctant to use gas due to its high price.\u00a0 Its cheaper to buy electricity from abroad.\u00a0 Now with Coal fired power stations closing there is another reason to import power, capacity is tight. There could be times when power could be flowing away from the UK.\u00a0 Norway has grid connections with other Scandinavian countries and it possible interconnctors could be a way of dealing with excess UK solar electricity in summer selling it to Denmark or Finland.\u00a0 I feel we need a balance in what we sell or import, we do not want to be too dependent on others for our power.\u00a0 On the other hand one of the disadvantages of interconnctors is the power is old off cheap so it does make sense to sell too much power to your neighbours at least until the generating assets have been paid for.\u00a0 This does not apply to Norway with its mature assets.<\/p>\n

There is something else going on here though.\u00a0 The government is not keen on onshore wind and I wonder whether this signals at least a partial break with renewables policy.<\/p>\n

Neil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week the worlds longest interconnector has been announced between the UK and Norway.\u00a0 (An interconnector is an international transmission line that connects two countries.)\u00a0 In our book we looked at the problems that switching to renewable electricity on a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,15,4],"tags":[105,49,61,63,51,47],"class_list":["post-5472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-costs","category-practical-low-carbon-living","category-renewables","tag-interconnector","tag-nuclear-power","tag-renewable-energy","tag-renewables-2","tag-solar-energy-payback","tag-wind-power"],"yoast_head":"\nInterconnector-interconnections - 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