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Keep eggs out of the fridge to save energy when cooking them
European supergrid could power UK with foreign green energy
Iceland geothermal facilities near Grindavík (image public domain)
Soon Wales will receive wind energy generated off the coast of Ireland via high voltage cables spanning the bottom of the Irish Sea.
There is already a link between the UK and the Netherlands via the BritNed cable and by 2019 a 900km interconnector between Norway and the UK should be completed, supplying energy from a clever pump storage system powered by wind turbines. Another connector between the UK and France is already in existence, with two more proposed, although one involves nuclear power.
The most interesting and by far longest cable proposed would link the UK power grid with geothermal power from Iceland.
From the Guardian:
Interconnectors are the cheapest way of backing up wind, because you avoid the greater capital cost of building power stations. We will of course be buying power in when the wind is not blowing, but the interconnectors mean we can sell our wind power when it does, and we have the best wind resource in Europe.
–Doug Parr, Greenpeace
Since Iceland’s volcanoes generate more geothermal energy than the small nation can use, the island country has also been trying to attract mega data centers to relocate there. Iceland sees powering data centers with cheap renewable energy as a greener way to harness its geothermal power than for running aluminum smelters, as is mostly the case today.
From Discover Magazine:
[…] data centers, which store information people put in the cloud and handle processing tasks that keep the Internet chugging along, are huge energy users. Their demand for electricity is growing by leaps and bounds, with some estimates holding that by 2020, they will use quadruple the energy they did in 2007.
And that power needs to come from somewhere.
supergrid: Red–existing lines, Green–approved project, Blue–Options under consideration (authors: Tintazul, Maix, J JMesserly; Wikimedia Commons)
Tags: cable, geothermal, green energy, Iceland, Norway, power, UK
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I agree, though these cables are massively thick, they remind me of the telegraph cable from Canada to Ireland, which was laid over 150 years ago.
that’s very impressive and inspiring, two countries sharing with a cleaner energy is like hitting two birds with one stone.. Countries rich with natural resources such as geothermal, hydro etc, are able to utilize the full potential of their natural energy through their usage and still could be able to share it with others that don’t have this resources. I think it’s more economical in a long run….