A European 'Supergrid?'
31st January 2008
Dr Alan Whitehead, MP for Southampton Test, yesterday hosted an event in Parliament to showcase the progress being made on the development of a massive European Offshore Supergrid. The Supergrid is a sub sea transmission network for offshore wind farms, and could be one of the most important ways of reaching Europe’s target of producing 20% of our energy from renewables by 2020.
Speaking of the project Dr Whitehead said:
“The aim in creating the Supergrid is to get past one of the main flaws of wind power farms, namely the fact that the wind does not blow constantly in one place, and therefore the power generated by a farm it is not reliable. Meteorological research shows that an area of high pressure is always matched by an area of low pressure somewhere on the coastline of Europe, even if these areas are hundreds of miles apart. It is, in other words, a fact that the wind is always blowing somewhere on the coastlines of Europe. By creating a grid connecting a network of wind farms across Europe’s coastal areas we can exploit this natural pattern to ensure that there is a continuous and reliable source of affordable energy available to the whole of Europe. This will have the additional benefits of connecting national markets, increasing competition, driving prices down and reducing Europe’s dependence on non renewable energy sources.”
The Supergrid, which could ultimately cover the Baltic Sea, North Sea, Irish Sea, English Channel, the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean, is being developed by green energy company Airtricity.
Speaking after the event to highlight the progress of the project Dr Whitehead praised the advances that have been made:
“Since May 2006 Airtricity have planned huge improvements to the European renewable energy market; they have secured permission for the 500MW Greater Gabbard project off the Suffolk coast in the UK which will be the largest offshore wind farm in the world when completed in 2010, and have been awarded permission to develop several major offshore wind farms in Holland and Germany. Building wind farms in the seas around northern and western Europe, as well as in areas of the Mediterranean is essential to achieving our renewable energy goals, as the best way to positively affect climate change is with a holistic, rather than a country-by-country approach. The Supergrid is a visionary project which could help transform, not only our own energy economy, but that of Europe.
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