Europe is Building a Massive Undersea Power Network

this is an undersea cable you've probably heard of them as they used to transmit most of our internet traffic but this one doesn't bring you your precious data it's even more important than that these cables share energy between countries and this one stretching from the uk all the way to denmark is going to be the longest ever constructed yes this does involve construction and a lot of it several have already been built and there are more planned all over europe a place which could soon become home to the world's first super grit that's a system where green energy is circulated all over a continent depending on when and where it's needed [Music] and you're about to see why it makes a load of sense [Music] renewable energy may be the way forward for our planet but it has a bit of a problem what happens when the sun isn't shining the wind isn't blowing or if there's a sudden spike in demand where do we get that extra energy from especially when we've done away with fossil fuels and what about countries that aren't able to install gigawatts of solar power build wind turbines all over the place or construct massive hydroelectric dams the answer could very well be these interconnectors they're high voltage cables that allow two or more countries to link their electricity systems instead of everyone hoarding their own energy interconnected countries can share power between them make money from any excess and help ensure there's always enough to go round there's a value for power in one country and a value for power in the other which is historically set either by the patterns of demand so what you're using the power for or the patterns of generation how you're making the powers tom edwards is an energy modeler at cornwall insight which provides research and analysis on energy markets for example france sits in kind of the heart of the european energy landscape because it's got lots of nuclear power which is very cheap to operate but expensive to build uh they have a surplus of power and they'd like to send they like to send that across other markets because those other markets are generally burning gas or coal unlike a gas pipe which only flows in one direction interconnectors are a two-way street and can distribute energy generated using completely different methods take the north sea link it's a new 720 kilometer cable between the uk and norway with a 1 450 megawatt capacity that's enough to power around 1.4 million homes since construction finished back in october 2021 the uk has had direct access to power originating from nordic hydro plants in return if the norwegians want to inject some more carbon free juice into their grid they've got energy from britain's vast offshore wind network in reserve right now it's the world's largest subsea interconnector but not for much longer works underway on a 765 kilometer hookup between the uk and denmark called the viking link fear not my fellow brits the danes aren't gearing up to send more rampaging norsemen to our shores at least we don't think they are this time they'll be shipping over something more favourable clean energy that again mostly comes from wind now we're only a few hundred miles apart but the uk and denmark don't often experience high winds at the same time so if the wind dies down in the uk there's a good chance the turbines are still turning across the north sea and vice versa denmark's been trading wind power with the netherlands like this since 2019 when the cobra cable was completed all of this increases the chance there will be some kind of renewable energy on tap whether it's generated at home or abroad and the idea will only grow as more connections are made between countries with different weather and power systems in the future when we've got hopefully lots of low carbon generation which should be cheap to operate but expensive to build it'll all be very reliant on what the weather patterns are across the continent it's going to be really important to kind of have an interconnected system in that way partly because we're going to be more reliant on these variable energy sources already more than a dozen interconnectors have been fully commissioned or under construction around the north sea alone the idea is that energy becomes more affordable for everyone and we could all do with our bills coming down right about now interconnectors give access to a wider pool of energy sources meaning more competition and in theory lower prices but hang on a minute how does this all work how's it possible to transmit so much power over such a vast distance using just cables well these cables are a bit more robust than the ones we use to charge our phones and the things they connect to are a little more complex too in the case of other long undersea connections like the new 623 kilometer nord link between norway and germany two converter stations were built at either end which are hooked up to the country's power grids to send electricity through the cable it has to be converted from ac to dc power that's to try and keep any energy lost during transmission to a minimum when it reaches the station at the other end it's converted back to ac power and is ready to enter the grid on nord link special vessels were used to lay the cable which weighs up to 70 kilograms per meter and consists of two parallel strands for the positive and negative poles because it had to be buried at depths of up to two meters a jetting sledge that's like an underwater plow pulled along by the boat was used to dig a trench and bury the cable at the same time when they reached the shore a combination of offshore platforms and micro tunnels brought the cable onto land before it was pulled through and connected to the stations many of europe's interconnected projects are built like this but not all of them and the reason is pretty obvious when you look at this map most of the continent's neighbouring countries aren't separated by water so if they want to link up to the energy networks boats aren't that useful you might think making overland connections is a lot simpler and it often is involving little more than transmission lines it's um historically easier to connect countries across the land border you know there are reasonably good connections between you know um germany and france being the main example germany poland there's constraints across all of those as well so it's not like they're all perfectly connected doesn't mean it's always easy though that small matter of the pyrenees between spain and france meant the two countries had to dig over 60 kilometers of tunnels but the new interconnector doubled the amount of electricity they can exchange not only has it meant a greater flow of renewable energy between the two countries it's also helped ensure there's enough power to run high-speed trains on the spanish side the benefits to all this seem pretty clear but are there any downsides are these connections completely reliable and what happens if something goes wrong one incident in september 2021 involving the link between france and the uk proved this type of infrastructure isn't entirely bulletproof or should i say fireproof ablaze at the ifa converter station in kent forced it to shut down and it could take two years to fully restore it led to energy supplies becoming a lot tighter than expected ahead of the winter and a rise in bills every large piece of infrastructure is prone to risk the the key thing about interconnects is though is they're so big that um they're actually a risk to the stability of the system when they fall over you know the the north south link to norway is now the biggest single generator or point at which power can enter the system what's the single biggest thing that can go wrong well it's now this really big interconnector that's bigger than even the biggest nuclear power station that we have on on the system in a future where more connections are in place though outreaches like this should be easier to address because if you lose one source of incoming power there'll be more to fall back on and that's exactly where things are going particularly in and around the eu in 2019 there were 82 connections between the eu and 10 neighboring countries spanning 22 borders but it's just the start the eu wants to achieve 15 interconnection by 2030. by that point each country will have the infrastructure to export at least 15 percent of the electricity it produces via these links eventually this could all lead to what's being dubbed the european super grid where every country is fully interconnected not just to themselves but also places like north africa and turkey no pressure to make sure we all get along now there are other projects worldwide that are set to break new records like sun cables plan to connect australia and singapore and euro africa linking greece cyprus and egypt but for overall scale europe's energy strategy will take some beating and it's likely to prove that in the future we're better off connected if you enjoyed this video and you want to learn more about where construction is headed make sure you subscribe to tomorrow's build

Channel: Tomorrow's Build

Views: 487,003

Keywords: construction, architecture, engineering, Tomorrow's Build, tomorrowsbuild, TomorrowsBuild, tomorrows build, B1M, The B1M, Fred Mills, building, future, energy, europe, interconnectors, power cables, cables, energy sharing, renewables, renewable energy, wind power, uk, denmark, viking link, norway, germany, france, spain, egypt, cyprus, greece, australia, singapore, sun cable, north sea link, nordlink, hydro power, euroafrica, electricity, hvdc, IFA, prysmian, energinet, orsted, undersea cables, tennet

Id: 2Ry38iWLJr0

Length: 9min 8sec (548 seconds)

Published: Tue May 10 2022