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We need a Europe-wide power grid stretching from Donegal to Budapest, from Helsinki to Palermo

The case for an energy supergrid is clearcut, the idea just hasn’t reached far enough into political consciousness

Equinor’s floating wind turbines, which sit 6 degrees off center when in use, about 25 miles off the coast of Scotland. Offshore wind will play a crucial role in decarbonising Europe's energy system. Photograph: Andrew Testa/The New York Times

Eddie O'Connor
Mon Nov 6 2023 - 05:00

If you want to do anything in business or any other walk of life, you need a target to aim for. This article is about the targets we have to reach to decarbonise Europe’s energy system.

So far, I have seen no definitive statement adopted by the European Commission or the European Parliament in this regard. This target has to be identified. In SuperNode, we have done those calculations.

Demand for electricity in Ireland is around 30 terawatt hours per year. To completely decarbonise the European system, and I mean the whole European system, which includes England, Norway and Switzerland, would be 9,700 terawatt hours per year. This energy, in our view, will come from wind, solar, hydro, nuclear, some biomass and geothermal.

There are a couple of points that need to be made about this number of 9,700. It is a good deal smaller than just transferring the amount of energy we now pay for oil, coal and gas. Using electricity instead of fossil fuels increases the efficiency of energy use and reduces the quantity we use.

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When every road vehicle in Europe is using batteries the efficiency of using electricity means we pay for about one-third of what we pay for oil. When we move to heat pumps for premises, we use less energy than we pay for natural gas, oil and coal for home heating.

Now that we have established the total quantity of electricity needed, we have to say what this involves in terms of generation equipment and, as importantly, transmission equipment.

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In Ireland, there needs to be about 1,100 gigawatts of wind turbines installed with about the same number of solar megawatts to achieve the 9,700 terawatt-hours target. The most energetic winds are to be found north of the Bay of Biscay, on the continental shelf off Ireland, Scotland and Norway. These will be supplemented by the Irish Sea, Bristol Channel, the North Sea and the Baltic and a small number of low-impact wind turbines onshore.

Ireland stands as the one EU member state with a superabundance of green power for export – most other EU countries are in deficit.

Of course, generation can be built anywhere but has zero impact on supply and demand for energy without a grid. It is for this reason that we have set up the Supergrid Association of Ireland.

It is important to state what this grid is. It is identical in outline to transmission grids on land. The history of transmission grids up to now has been nation based and thus we have the Irish, UK, French and so on – national transmission grids.

However, what is needed now is a Europe-wide grid that stretches from Donegal to Budapest and from Helsinki to Palermo – to include every EU state.

For the first time in history a collection of some 30 nations, will share in the electricity generated in native Europe. What inspired Jean Monnet, Konrad Adenauer, Schumann and Winston Churchill, is within technology reach. But it has not yet entered sufficiently far into political consciousness.

The key to making it all happen for us is to realise that we need to vote for this to happen. We live in a democracy and we want to save the planet for future generations. Collectively, we need to demand from our politicians across Europe that they put in place the necessary regulatory environment.

A regulatory environment is one that allows the Irish to sell and the European customer to purchase our or anyone else’s electricity. One important aspect of the regulatory system is the protection it builds for the customer while allowing the supplier to be paid for the electrical energy. It stems from political directives that unite us as a continent, under the banner of mutual interdependency.

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So how much grid needs to be built? 410,000 gigawatt kilometres. Because it is being built initially largely underwater, it will be in direct current (DC).

When contemplating any revolutionary change, the impossibility thinkers, unfortunately largely politicians, anti-business people and those who live entirely in the present tense all scream, “too expensive”.

The truth about green is that it is cheaper than burning coal, oil, gas or peat. In Europe at present, we spend in the order of €400 billion per annum on fossil fuels. When we move to renewable sources of generation, the fuel comes free.

This brings us to a critical point that has to be made about our green electricity future. It is a business opportunity for those who see it, equalling the internet or Microsoft or Apple opportunities. The money exists but it can only be accessed if the policy base is written by the politicians. Politicians have a key role in reducing the risk for the debt and equity providers.

For Ireland, with its crashing wind speeds and huge continental shelf, it is our way of reversing seven centuries of economic decline for the western part of the country. I cannot think of any more fertile activity for the IFSC than for raising the money to build out the generation and transmission.

Eddie O’Connor is chairman of renewables company SuperNode and founder of the Supergrid Association of Ireland

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