New Wave Media

Norway's grid operator Statnett will start constructing the first part of its NordLink power cable to Germany in August, the company said on Thursday.

 

NordLink, an interconnector that will be over 600 km (373 miles) long, will be able to supply power to more than 600,000 households when in operation.

 

Statnett is building two 1.4 gigawatt (GW) subsea cables to Germany and Britain to start up in 2020 and 2021 respectively, with each cable costing up to 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion).

 

"The first part of the NordLink cable will be installed ... in the beginning of August," the company said in an email to Reuters. It said that after years of planning and preparations work on the interconnector between Norway and Germany was actually starting.

 

The first part of the NordLink cable will be installed from Vollesfjord in southern Norway and out into Danish waters, 100 kilometres of the way to Germany, the company said.

 

In June, the Norwegian grid operator secured a 300 million euro ($336.33 million) loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for construction of the interconnector.

 

French cable maker Nexans is responsible for the installation of the first part of NordLink, Statnett said.


(Reporting by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos, editing by David Evans and Jane Merriman)