Wind turbines in the North Sea feed car production in Spain, whilst hydroelectric reserves in Norway act as the short-term battery to cover peaks in demand in Germany. Reliance on imports reduces and we gain a competitive advantage as the content runs on cheap energy.
Quite a lot of this already exists. There is already a ’50 Hz synchronous grid’ that covers most of mainland Europe. The Nordic Grid covers Norway, Sweden, Finland, and part of Denmark. Interconnectors between the UK and Europe, import low carbon energy from France and Norway. There are plans for ever greater integration.
Elia’s Elizabeth Island is a plan to build an artificial island that will connect North Sea wind farms and country interconnectors.
Xlinks is a plan is to build a 3,000km link from Morocco to the UK. Where 10GW (about ¼ of the electricity use of the UK) could be provided by solar and wind plants in Morocco.
Sounds idyllic? There are some key questions to answer:
How is the price set for European electricity, and would it be cheaper than home produced?
Do you trust that the energy that you are using came from a renewable source?
Is this system more efficient? Today, we lose about 10% of electricity due to heating of the lines. There is a chance that the gushing hydro power that enters the grid in Norway becomes a trickle in Munich, which are 1,600km apart.
How should electricity pass through countries between its source and destination? What is the cost for this, what about limited grid capacity, can the middle country refuse to transport energy?
What stops the whole system from going into physical or financial imbalance? There could be plenty of energy in France from nuclear and not enough in Italy, would high prices in Italy drive up costs for French consumers?
Are there better ways to transport energy over long distances? Today we do this with coal, oil, and gas. In future we could transport green hydrogen or ammonia. We are experts in transporting molecular energy. Building new grids is difficult and takes a decade.
Could we build SMR nuclear reactors where the power is needed and avoid transporting electricity over distances?
All of these are solvable problems, but it will require political alignment and a set of politicians that understand the physics and market sufficiently to take this in the right direction.
