Isra-Mart srl:Utilities to investigate Scotland-Norway energy cable

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Plans for a giant subsea energy cable linking Scotland and Norway have been given a major boost after a group of utilities launched a new government-backed venture to investigate the proposals.

SSE Interconnector, a subsidiary of Scottish and Southern Energy signed a partnership agreement yesterday with Adger Energi, E-Co Energi and Lyse, and Sweden's Vattenfall to examine the feasibility of installing an interconnector between the UK and Norway.

The announcement came as Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond also launched a jointly-owned interconnector development company, NorthConnect, supported by the government backed Scottish European Green Energy Centre, which will contribute €50,000 to the project's route survey.

Launching the venture, Salmond said the cable would provide a boost to Scotland's plans to become a major exporter of renewable energy.

"Scotland is ideally placed to become the green powerhouse of Europe, with a practical offshore renewables resource estimated at 206GW - just one third of which could generate electricity to meet the needs of more than 36 million households far beyond our shores," he said.

SSE chief executive Ian Marchant said network interconnection is set to become an increasingly important feature of the European electricity sector over the next two decades as countries try to secure supplies of low carbon energy sources.

"Scotland and Norway have rich and diverse natural resources from which to produce large amounts of electricity, and an interconnector could allow the potential of those complementary resources to be fulfilled by meeting the needs of customers across north west Europe," he said.

An interconnector between the two nations would theoretically allow Scotland to export any excess energy from its wind farms to Scandinavia, while simultaneously giving it access to energy provided by Norway's hydroelectric power plants on still days.

Yesterday's announcement follows discussions held between Salmond and Norwegian government ministers and company executives last August, to explore how the two nations could boost co-operation on a range of energy matters.

Initial studies have shown an interconnector would require a subsea cable between 550 and 700 kilometres long. Current technical preference would see the shortest possible interconnector cable deployed from a landing point in North East Scotland.