Village to be at the heart of the green transition as £2billion project approved
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The move, given the go-ahead in the past few days, will not only reduce the UK’s reliance on unpredictably priced gas power but is also expected to slash the country’s energy bills by £870million per year.
Called Eastern Green Link 1 (EGL1), the project will see more than 120 miles of cable carefully laid under the seabed to transport vast amounts of renewable energy from Scotland to England where it will be used to power millions of homes.
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Hide AdThe cable will come ashore just north of Seaham before being laid underground to its final destination in Hawthorn.
When complete, the cable will channel two gigawatts of wind-generated energy beneath the North Sea, supplemented by a 12-mile terrestrial network connecting to substations and converter stations at each end.
At Hawthorn, that will include a new converter station, new substation and two hectares at Hawthorn Pit (between Murton and South Hetton), County Durham.
Communities along the cable route in Scotland and northeast England will benefit from a £7.9m social value fund.
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Hide AdThe ambitious plans are set to quickly become a reality with the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), having used a fast-track funding process to enable swift project delivery, ensuring customers can benefit from clean, affordable energy sooner.
Work on laying the underground cable is set to begin next year and is scheduled for completion in 2029 at which point the project will be capable of powering up to two million homes.
That’s enough energy to power every household in North East and Cumbria with wind power.
Ofgem has also included safeguards within the scheme ensuring customers stand to benefit through reductions in their energy bills.
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Hide AdThe EGL1 cable will be primarily laid under the North Sea and will transport electricity generated from North Sea wind farms from East Lothian.
The subsea cable will be part of a broader effort to move away from dependence on gas markets, which have been shown to be incredibly volatile to actions abroad, such as the Ukraine war or price fixing by suppliers.
Currently, energy producers are occasionally forced to deactivate wind farms during periods of strong winds due to insufficient grid infrastructure, but projects like the one at Hawthorn will help remove that problem.
Meanwhile, the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) has saved £43m by streamlining the funding process, givingdevelopers early access to funds, allowing them to secure necessary materials and ensure swift delivery.
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Hide AdThe project is being developed by SP Energy Networks and National Grid Electricity Transmission with the National Energy System Operator (NESO) flagging the EGL1 as essential to the UK’s 20030 clean energy g
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