The former director of a Norwegian power company, which oversees the undersea energy cable between Norway and Holland, believes that a similar cable between Iceland and Britain is a real possibility.
As reported, UK energy minister Charles Hendry believes very strongly in the idea of a power cable between Iceland and the UK. Last April, Hendry told reporters at the time that “We will be dependent on imported energy”, and that the cables “are an absolutely critical part of energy security and for low carbon energy.” In fact, Hendry arrived in Iceland yesterday to sign a willingness agreement on the idea.
RÚV now reports that Odd Håkon Hoelsæter, the former director of Norwegian power company Statnett – which oversees and maintains the power cable between Norway and Holland – told attendees at an Arion Banki conference that the Iceland-UK cable idea was viable.
Odd said that his experience in Norway had been that while exporting electricity from Norway did make household energy prices higher, they did not go as high as expected, and rates for electricity in fact became more stable. He added furthermore that Iceland and Norway are similar in terms of power sources – most of Iceland’s energy comes from hydropower.
Last year, the Ministry of Industry concluded that the country could produce up to 50 terawatts of electricity through hydropower and geothermal energy. By comparison, the country’s total electricity consumption is at 17 terawatts. Some amount of the unused potential could, the ministry said, be exported to other countries via undersea cable.
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