Ofgem has approved five new undersea energy links which it says will further harness the vast potential of North Sea wind and help power millions of homes.

The energy industry regulator says with Britain expected to be a net exporter of energy by 2030, the project will capitalise on the growing amount of homegrown wind power by providing additional channels for exporting in times of energy surplus and importing during times of more limited domestic supply.

Two of the projects will also create the country’s first Offshore Hybrid Assets (OHAs) which can directly feed energy generated by offshore wind farms into both British and European grids. Ofgem says approval of the projects would make Britain a world leader in this emerging new energy technology.

The new connections will keep consumer costs as low as possible through Ofgem’s cap and floor rules which limit revenue for interconnectors.

The greenlit new projects are:

Interconnector
Tarchon Energy Interconnector - a 610km subsea cable between East Anglia and Niederlangen, Germany to deliver upto 1.4GW of electricity capacity.
Mares Connect - a 190km subsea cable between Bodelwyddan, North Wales, to the Republic of Ireland, which will deliver 0.75GW of additional electricity capacity
LirIC - a 142km subsea electricity interconnector between Kilroot in Northern Ireland to Hunterston in Ayrshire, Scotland will deliver 0.7GW of additional electricity capacity

OHA (Offshore Hybrid Assets)
LionLink - this OHA will connect Dutch offshore windfarms to the GB grid with an onshore landing point in Suffolk and providing upto 1.8GW of clean electricity to each country
Nautilus - this OHA will connect Belgium offshore windfarms to the GB grid, coming ashore at the Isle of Grain in Kent, and providing upto 1.4GW of offshore wind to each country through subsea electricity cables.

The new projects are all expected to be complete and operational by the end of 2032.

The new OHAs will maximise the efficiency of both interconnection and transmission by providing one-stop connections which can transmit electricity from windfarms to grids when they are generating, and which can provide more interconnector capacity at other times.

They will also cut down on the footprint of infrastructure needed by combining both interconnection and offshore wind connection into a single asset, thereby reducing community and environmental impacts as well as costs

Akshay Kaul, director general for infrastructure at Ofgem, said: “We’ve carefully assessed all the proposed projects and only approved those ones which deliver for consumers in terms of value, viability and energy security.

“As we shift to a clean power system more reliant on intermittent wind and solar energy, these new connections will help harness the vast potential of the North Sea and play a key role in making our energy supply cheaper and less reliant on volatile foreign gas markets and associated price spikes.

“With Britain expected to become a net energy exporter in the 2030s, these connections will equip us with world leading technology to export more of our surplus clean power overseas.

“They will also provide greater access to energy imports, which together with domestic low carbon energy sources such as nuclear and biomass, will provide vital back-up energy sources when renewable generation is more limited here.”