Scotland and Norway will both play a key role in Europe’s increasingly integrated energy market, building on the two nations’ long-established expertise in the hydro-electricity and offshore oil & gas sectors, Alex Salmond said today as he addressed an international renewables conference in Bergen.

Following a meeting with the project chairman, the First Minister welcomed progress on NorthConnect – a venture between Scottish and Southern Energy, three Norwegian companies (E-CO Energi, Agder Energi and Lyse) and Swedish-based utility Vattenfall – to construct a Scotland-Norway interconnector joining UK and Scandinavian electricity grids.

The Scottish European Green Energy Centre provided €50,000 (about £40,000) to support the project’s early survey work and following a €690,000 (about £553,000) European Union grant in March, work has now started on a cable route study and environmental studies in the UK and Norway are also under way.

-- Advertisement --

The First Minister also highlighted the ScottishPower Renewables’ on-going partnership with ANDRITZ HYDRO Hammerfest, whose HS1000 tidal technology is due to be deployed in the world’s first and only consented tidal turbine array, of 10 Megawatts, in the Sound of Islay off Scotland’s west coast.

Mr Salmond also announced the launch of a new online ‘hydro-heritage’ archive project, developed by Historic Scotland in partnership with Norway’s Museum of Hydropower & Industry. (See separate Historic Scotland news release at the Historic Scotland website.)

The First Minister said: "Building on our hydro heritage and offshore energy engineering expertise gained from North Sea oil and gas, our nations are clearly both well-placed to make a huge contribution to Europe’s green energy ambitions. The partnership between ANDRITZ HYDRO Hammerfest and ScottishPower Renewables is making good progress, with their HS1000 tidal technology deployed and undergoing testing at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney. Later this week, the project partners are due to announce the results of this initial testing - an important milestone to reach in the development of this exciting project.

"From world-leading offshore wind, marine and hydro energy in the north of Europe, to massive solar power in the south, we have huge natural renewable resources, which must be harnessed in the most efficient way to deliver benefits for all the continent’s citizens. The NorthConnect project is an excellent example of the kind of grid interconnection that will be needed across the continent to ensure we maximise the contribution of all European nations to reduce our reliance on imported fossil fuels, increase energy security and meet targets for reduced greenhouse gas emissions and renewable energy generation."

(GK)