European super grid

The European super grid is a hypothetical super grid which ultimately would interconnect the various European countries and the regions around Europe's borders—including North Africa, Kazakhstan, and Turkey—with a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power grid.

It is envisaged that a European super grid would:

  • lower the cost of power in all participating countries by allowing the entire region to share the most efficient power plants;
  • pool load variability and power station unreliability, reducing the margin of inefficient spinning reserve and standby that have to be supplied;
  • allow for wider use of renewable energy, particularly wind energy, from the concept that "it is always windy somewhere" –in particular it tends to be windy in the summer in North Africa, and windy in the winter in Europe;
  • allow wide sharing of the total European hydro power resource, which is about 6 weeks of full load European output;
  • decrease Europe's dependence on imported fuels.

A recent study from the University College Dublin (UCD) Energy Institute indicates that implementing a pan-European 'supergrid' could lead to a 32% reduction in energy costs across the continent.

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