A Scottish national electricity grid provider is to hold a meeting later this month with the renewable energy supply chain about finally connecting the Shetland isles to the mainland.
SSEN has been working on the plan to install the mostly subsea 160-mile cable from Caithness to Shetland for more than 10 years.
Only about six miles of the cable – between Upper Kergord in Shetland and Noss Head in Caithness – would be on land.
The high voltage direct current cable would allow renewable energy developers on the islands to export electricity to the Scottish mainland grid.
SSEN said “several factors”, including financial barriers, government policy and the readiness of renewable power developers, had delayed the laying of the cable.
However, an SSEN spokesman said there is now renewed optimism about the project following a Brit-Govt decision to allow remote island wind projects to compete for subsidies in its Contracts for Difference auction in Spring 2019.
16 May 2018
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