Underwater power cable between Belgium and Denmark one step closer

As part of the European Green Deal, Belgium has the ambition to be completely carbon-neutral by 2050. However, we will probably never be able to generate enough renewable energy domestically to meet our own needs. International cooperations offer perspectives in this regard.

Denmark

To achieve Belgium’s climate ambitions, the federal government is exploring partnerships with countries producing a surplus of renewable energy. On 4 February, for instance, Minister of Energy Tinne Van der Straeten signed a first agreement for the installation of an underwater power cable between Belgium and Denmark. 

This underwater cable, which will be 500 kilometres long, should give us direct access to inexpensive Danish wind energy and enable us to secure our supply. The plans are still at an early stage, but the aim is to have an operational cable by 2030.

Great Britain

The idea of an underwater power cable is not new. For instance, an underwater power cable between Belgium and the United Kingdom called the Nemo cable has been in place since 2018. This is a joint venture between Britain’s National Grid and Belgium’s Elia.

By the way, the above interconnector was the first underwater power cable between two countries and has a maximum capacity of 1,000 MW. That is a lot less than the planned interconnector between Belgium and Denmark, which could transport up to 1.4 GW. 

CORDOBA

The construction of underwater power cables involves many technical challenges and a large number of stakeholders. This does not make realising such connections any easier. 

The intercluster project CORDOBA (Blue Cluster/Flux 50) responds to this by developing supporting decision tools and operation models for hybrid offshore systems.