World’s Largest-Of-Its-Kind Power Line To Deliver Clean Power To 1.8m UK Homes And Boost Energy Security
The title of this post, is the same as that as this press release from the UK Government.
These are the three bullet points of the press release.
- LionLink power line between UK and Netherlands will deliver enough electricity to power more homes than Manchester and Birmingham combined.
- Agreement made as Grant Shapps leads delegation of leading businesses to key North Sea Summit.
- Part of renewed Government drive to work with business to help grow the economy.
These three paragraphs outline the project.
The world’s largest multi-use electricity power line will be built under the North Sea, boosting UK energy supplies with enough to power 1.8 million homes – more than Birmingham and Manchester combined.
The new LionLink will connect the UK and the Netherlands with offshore wind farms, providing clean affordable and secure energy to Britain which will help cut household bills and drive Putin’s Russia further out of the energy market.
The cross-border electricity line will be only the second of its kind in the world, with the first having been built by Germany and Denmark. However, it will be able to carry more than four times the amount of electricity as its predecessor – making it the largest of its kind in terms of capacity anywhere in the world.
Note.
- I suspect the LionLink will go via the Dogger Bank, where Danish, Dutch, German and UK territorial waters meet an we are already building 8 GW of fixed foundation offshore wind. The other countries are also active in the area.
- The press release doesn’t mention, where the LionLink will make landfall in the UK.
- Much of the connection will probably use the cables being laid for the Dogger Bank wind farms.
- There is also no mention of the North Sea Wind Power Hub, which could be an artificial island on the Dogger Bank.
There is also a press release on the National Grid web site, which is entitled National Grid And TenneT Collaborate On Proposed First-Of-A-Kind Anglo-Dutch Electricity Link, which gives more details.
- The capacity is stated to be 2 GW.
- Like the current BritNed interconnector, the project will be a cooperation between National Grid And TenneT.
- TenneT is a limited liability company owned by the Dutch government, that is a transmission system operator in the Netherlands and in a large part of Germany.
There is also a diagram, showing how the LionLink will work, which includes these components.
- On the Dutch side, there is an offshore AC>DC Converter Station, which is connected to the Dutch electricity grid and one or more offshore wind farms.
- Across the border between the Dutch and UK Exclusive Economic Zones, there will be a HVDC cable.
- The HVDC cable will terminate in an onshore DC>AC Converter Station in the UK, which will be connected to the UK electricity grid.
No details of the two landfalls have been given.
More information is given in this article on offshoreWIND.biz, which is entitled UK And Netherlands Unveil Multi-Purpose Interconnector Plans.
- This shows a map of the North Sea with an interconnector running in a straight line between possibly Rotterdam and Bacton in Norfolk.
- A wind farm is shown connected to this interconnector.
This paragraph describes the windfarm and the interconnector.
LionLink, a multi-purpose interconnector that was announced today at the North Sea summit, could connect a Dutch offshore wind farm with a capacity of 2 GW to both countries via subsea interconnectors.
If the wind farm has a capacity of 2 GW, I would assume it can supply up to 2 GW to the UK and The Netherlands.
This is a classic system, that can be optimised by the application of sound principles.
All electricity generated by the wind farm must be used, stored or converted into green hydrogen.
Electricity will be distributed as to need.
Energy storage or electrolysers could be sited at either end or even in the wind farm.
I would suspect that more wind farms could be connected to the interconnector.
The team, that write the control system for the grid will have a lot of fun!
BritNed
I have a feeling that National Grid and TenneT have taken a long hard commercial look at the electrical and financial performance of BritNed over the last year and decided, that a second connection would be to the mutual benefit of both companies, their customers and the UK and The Netherlands in general.
It would also be twice as difficult for terrorists sponsored by Putin to cut two cables.
Conclusion
This is a great leap forward for wind power in the North Sea and Europe.
NeuConnect Awards Two Major Contracts
This page on the NeuConnect web site is entitled NeuConnect Awards Over £1.5 billion Of Major Contracts As First Ever UK-German Energy Link Moves An Important Step Closer.
NeuConnect is a proposed interconnector between England and Germany.
- It will have a capacity of 1.4 GW.
- The interconnector will be around 450 miles long.
- It will be HVDC, like many similar undersea power cables.
- As the title says, it will be the first-ever UK-German energy link.
Wikipedia describes the route like this.
The cable will run between the Greystones substation on the Isle of Grain, in Kent in England to the new Fedderwarden substation in Wilhelmshaven in the Lower Saxony region of Germany. Landfall will be next to Grain Coastal Park, in Kent, and at Hooksiel, near Wilhemshaven in Germany.
Two contracts have been awarded.
- The contract to design, manufacture, install, test and commission the 725km interconnector has been awarded to Prysmian Group.
- The contract to design and build two converter stations in the UK and Germany has been awarded to Siemens Energy.
This sounds like a very simple plan to add an important interconnector between the UK and Germany.
I have some observations and thoughts.
The Isle Of Grain
The Isle of Grain is described in Wikipedia like this.
Isle of Grain (Old English Greon, meaning gravel) is a village and the easternmost point of the Hoo Peninsula within the district of Medway in Kent, south-east England. No longer an island and now forming part of the peninsula, the area is almost all marshland and is a major habitat for diverse wetland birds. The village constitutes a civil parish, which at the 2011 census had a population of 1,648, a net decrease of 83 people in 10 years.
Apart for the birds, over the last few decades it has been home to the following.
- Until 1982, it was the location of a BP oil refinery.
- In the 1990s, the isle was used to make the segments for the lining of the Channel Tunnel.
- Following completion of the Channel Tunnel, the site is now part-occupied by Thamesport, the UK’s third largest container port.
- Next to the former BP site is Grain Power Station, built in the 1970s, which previously burnt oil.
- This power station was demolished in the 2015 and replaced with a 1.275 GW gas-fired power station.
- Another major installation is a new Grain Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) import facility, which takes heat from the gas-fired power station.
- The Isle of Grain is the landing point for the BritNed undersea power cable between The Netherlands and the UK.
The Google Map shows the Isle of Grain.
Note.
- Thamesport is in the South-West corner
- To its North is the LNG import facility.
- To the North-East of Thamesport is the 735 MW Medway power station.
- There is a rail connection to Hoo Junction on the North Kent Line.
This second Google Map shows the Eastern side of the Isle.
Note.
- Grain Coastal Park, where NeuConnect will make landfall, is marked by the green arrow at the top of the map.
- Towards the South-Eastern corner of the map is the 1.275 GW Grain gas-fired power station.
- To the East of the power station, there is more switchgear than you see in a bad Frankenstein film.
- The smaller square at the bottom with the two white squares could be the converter station for the BritNed interconnector.
I am sure there is space on the island for a connection for NeuConnect.
There is also a total of 2.01 GW of gas-fired power stations on the Isle of Grain.
Wind Power In The Thames Estuary
This Google Map shows the Thames Estuary.
Note that the red arrow indicates the Isle of Grain.
This map from Wikipedia shows the wind farms in the area.
These are the ones that are operational.
- 2 – East Anglia Array – 714 MW
- 8 – Greater Gabbard – 504 MW
- 9 – Gunfleet Sands – 184 MW
- 13 – Kentish Flats – 140 MW
- 15 – London Array – 630 MW
- 27 – Thanet – 300 MW
Note.
- The Isle of Grain is just above the second o in London.
- I have ignored the Ramplion wind farm (21!), as it is too far from the Isle of Grain.
- This is a total of nearly 2.5 GW.
Planned extensions in the area include.
- East Anglia Array – 3.1 GW – Completion date of 2026
But the Wikipedia entry for the East Anglia Array says this about the wind farm.
The target capacity for the entire East Anglia Zone is 7200 MW which could require up to 1200 turbines.
Could we see one of the following?
- A connector from the East Anglia Array to the Isle of Grain.
- One or more new wind farms in the Thames Estuary connected to the Isle of Grain.
- German investment in a wind farm or farms connected to the Isle of Grain.
The Isle of Grain could become an island of energy providing power for London, the South-East of England, Germany and The Netherlands.
An Electrolyser On The Isle Of Grain
Consider.
- There will be plenty of renewable electricity.
- As there is a liquified natural gas terminal, there is plenty of gas storage.
- One or both of the gas-fired power stations can be converted to run on hydrogen.
- As more and more trucks are converted to hydrogen, there will be a large demand for hydrogen for heavy transport.
This must surely make a large electrolyser on the Isle of Grain a possibility.
The BritNed Interconnector
The BritNed interconnector is described like this in Wikipedia.
BritNed is a 1,000 MW high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) submarine power cable between the Isle of Grain in Kent, the United Kingdom; and Maasvlakte in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The BritNed interconnector would serve as a link for the foreseeable European super grid project.
Up to now, most of the electricity flow has been to the UK.
But surely, as more wind farms are developed power will flow the other way.
Wilhelmshaven Will Be A German Hub For Green Hydrogen
In Uniper To Make Wilhelmshaven German Hub For Green Hydrogen; Green Ammonia Import Terminal, I described plans by the Germans for a hydrogen hub at Wilhelmshaven.
The original story came from an article with the same name on Green Car Congress.
This is the first two paragraphs.
Under the name “Green Wilhelmshaven,” Germany-based international energy company Uniper plans to establish a German national hub for hydrogen in Wilhelmshaven and is working on a corresponding feasibility study.
Plans include an import terminal for green ammonia. The terminal will be equipped with an ammonia cracker for producing green hydrogen and will also be connected to the planned hydrogen network. A 410-megawatt electrolysis plant is also planned, which—in combination with the import terminal—would be capable of supplying around 295,000 metric tons or 10% of the demand expected for the whole of Germany in 2030.
As I said in the original post, I’m not happy about green ammonia, but the 1.4 GW NeuConnect interconnector has more than enough power to run a 410 MW electrolyser plant at full capacity.
It could even run three electrolysers of this size.
Hooksiel And Wilhelmshaven
NeuConnect will make landfall at Hooksiel.
This Google Map shows Hooksiel and Wilhelmshaven.
Note.
- Hooksiel is the village outlined in red.
- The water to the right of the map is the Jade Bight.
- The square block sticking out into the bight appears to be a container port.
- There appears to be chemical works or oil refineries North of the port.
- Wilhelmshaven is the town to the South of the port.
There would appear to be plenty of space for Uniper to construct Green Wilhelmshaven.
German And UK Wind Power Production
According to this page on Wikipedia, which is entitled Wind Power By Country, in 2020, these were installed wind power in various countries.
- Germany – 62,184 MW
- Spain – 27,089 MW
- UK – 24,665 MW
- France – 17,382 MW
- Italy – 10,389 MW
- Netherlands – 6,600 MW
In 2020 we were 37.5 GW behind Germany.
It looks like we’ll commission 3.3 GW this year and 6.1 in 2023, with Wikipedia saying that 12.9 GW is under development, which should close the gap to a certain extent.
In ScotWind Offshore Wind Leasing Delivers Major Boost To Scotland’s Net Zero Aspirations, I described how Scotland will add 15.1 GW of floating and 9.7 GW of fixed foundation offshore wind.
It looks like initially, we’ll be buying German wind-generated electricity, but in the future the direction could easily change around.
Boris And Olaf
There were mumblings from Boris, that energy was talked about in their meeting in Downing Street last week.
It does appear there is a lot of ways that the UK and Germany can co-operate in the future with respect to energy.
- German finance can be used to build wind farms in UK waters.
- German companies can build the turbines and the interconnectors we need to develop vast offshore wind farms.
- We can supply surplus energy to Germany through the NeuConnect interconnector.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Boris and Olaf had signed a very comprehensive energy co-operation agreement.
The Anonymous Widower 