Britain to import energy from US under plan for transatlantic power cable

Britain homes could one day be powered by electricity generated in America under plans to install up to six power cables across the Atlantic, Report informs referring to The Telegraph.

The cables would stretch roughly 3,500 miles across the ocean, reaching depths of up to 11,000 feet, and carrying power roughly equivalent to several nuclear power stations.

A group of London investors and energy consultants are behind the ambitious scheme, as they claim technological advances in subsea cables could allow the creation of a global “intercontinental grid”.

Simon Ludlam, one of the businessmen backing the project, says such a cable would enable electricity to be traded across the Atlantic, taking advantage of the differences in peak demand as the power line crosses time zones.

“When the sun is high in London, it’d be breakfast time in New York where people could use UK or European power to cook breakfast,” says Ludlam. “And then five hours later, the sun will be high in America, so solar and other power stations there will provide the power for cooking supper in the UK.”

The scheme, which is still in its early stages, is one of several long-distance subsea cable projects that have been prompted by rapid improvements in technology.

The most advanced is the Xlinks project to lay four cables between the UK and a network of wind and solar farms spread across the Sahara desert in Morocco – a distance of 2,400 miles.

Once completed, the scheme is expected to deliver about 3.6 gigawatts (GW) of electricity to the UK’s national grid – equating to about 8pc of total power demand.

Another, on the other side of the world, will see a cable laid from wind farms in Australia’s Northern Territory to Singapore, supplying the city-state with low-carbon power.

Saudi Arabia and India are also looking at plans to link the power grids of both countries via subsea cables.