Within weeks, work is expected to begin on a 121-mile (195-kilometre) clean energy “superhighway” designed to channel green electricity from Scotland’s rich renewable resources to the north of England.
The industry regulator Ofgem is expected to give the green light for work to begin on the first section of the multibillion-pound high-voltage cable project, Eastern Green Link (EGL), in the coming days. Ofgem’s approval for a second section is expected to follow within weeks.
By the autumn, construction is expected to begin on what will be one of Britain’s biggest power grid projects, carrying enough green electricity along the east coast of Britain, mostly under the sea, to power 4m homes by 2029.
The first section to gain approval – officially phase 2 of EGL – will be built by National Grid in partnership with the energy company SSE and run from Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, to Wilsthorpe on the Yorkshire coast near Bridlington. The second project expected to be greenlit – EGL phase 1 – will link the Torness area in East Lothian to the Hawthorn Pit in County Durham, constructed by National Grid and Scottish Power.
The scale of the project is expected to double in the years to come as EGL’s third and fourth phases form the electrical backbone of Britain’s future green electricity system.
“The scale of these projects is absolutely massive,” said one industry source.
The size of EGL matches the scale of the challenge ahead in creating an electricity system fit for a net-zero future. It is one of 26 critical energy infrastructure schemes, worth an estimated £20bn, being fast-tracked by the regulator to meet Britain’s ambitious green energy targets.
Under the new Labour government these targets are even more pressing: to create a net-zero electricity system by 2030, ministers plan to double the UK’s onshore wind, triple its solar power and quadruple its offshore wind capacity. This clean energy boom will require a big change in the UK’s approach to energy infrastructure, both in the speed and scale of the work and how it affects local communities. National Grid estimates that the UK will need to build five times more electricity infrastructure by 2030 than it has in the past three decades. But not everyone welcomes the change.
The EGL undersea cables will require substations, converter stations and miles of overhead lines on land to connect the projects to Britain’s existing electricity grid. The energy companies have undertaken some of the most in-depth public consultation exercises ever seen in the sector to address concerns over the sharp increase in energy infrastructure across rural areas.
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“As a country we are trying to put as much of this new transmission as possible out at sea,” said an industry source. “But these cables do need to come ashore somewhere, and there needs to be the infrastructure in place to carry the power from the coast into people’s homes. This means substations, pylons and cables. It means more power lines and poles. And people don’t seem prepared for the fact that this infrastructure is both very necessary and very visible.”
For SSE the green link project is one of four new critical national transmission schemes across the north of Scotland that will enable the supply of clean energy to homes and businesses around Great Britain. It believes that its public consultation on the projects amounts to “one of the biggest listening exercises in Scotland’s history”. The company has directly contacted nearly 300,000 people within six miles of the proposed projects to have their say in more than 220 consultation events and public meetings. It estimates that more than 10,000 people attended and it has received more than 12,000 written responses.
Lesley Dow, SSE’s head of community engagement, said the company was working to balance “the clear need for these projects to deliver energy security and net zero” with community concerns and technical and environmental constraints.
“This balance is by no means easily reached, but by listening closely to communities we have already made significant changes to project plans, including moving substation locations and altering overhead line routes,” she said.
This level of public engagement will need to be replicated across the major infrastructure projects needed across the country as the UK moves towards becoming a net-zero economy by 2050. “Most people in the UK are not used to seeing where their electricity comes from,” the source added. “In the past it was possible to keep a few giant power plants from view by basing them far from the most populated areas. But in a low-carbon world we’ll need a lot more electricity, and we’ll rely on a lot more energy projects to get it. This won’t be inconspicuous.”