An enduring attachment
New cross-Channel high-voltage power cable will supply the UK with power from Normandy and enable the UK to export its own green power surpluses back to France.
By Marc Allen, Editor UK.
A second high-voltage sub-sea cable now links the UK and France and will soon begin supplying enough French electricity to power 1m British homes, reports the Guardian. The ‘interconnector’, known as IFA2, stretches 149 miles between Hampshire on the British south-coast and Normandy in France.
IFA2 is the second interconnector between the two countries and will meet about 1.2% of Britain’s energy demands, helping reduce the UK’s dependence on fossil fuels by importing zero-carbon electricity from France’s north-coast nuclear power stations. With Britain’s green-energy production expected to quadruple in the next 10 years, it will also allow the UK to export its surplus to back to the Continent.
Jon Butterworth, managing director of National Grid Ventures, described IFA2 as: “the latest feat of world-class engineering helping to transform and decarbonise the electricity systems of Britain and its European neighbours. Together we are now able to help deliver cleaner, more secure, and more affordable energy to consumers at both ends of the cable…”
