Local MP Tessa has discussed a new undergrounding proposal for transmission of power after meeting with representatives of the Greenwire project at the Lib Dem Conference last month.
Greenwire has secured an agreement with National Grid for a 3,000MW grid connection to the mainland providing clean, green electricity generated from onshore wind turbines in central Ireland.
The Greenwire project has the potential to supply the UK with 10 terawatt hours of renewable power annually, enough to power three million homes. Greenwire is one the largest onshore energy projects in the EU, connecting the onshore wind farms Ireland to two substations in Wales using underground and subsea methods. The project proposes using high voltage direct current (HVDC) cables, which reduces the amount of electricity lost and, crucially for Somerset, are more easily buried.
Tessa was enthusiastic about following up her initial meeting with the Greenwire representatives as she has worked consistently to find alternatives to National Grid’s current proposals, which will see fifty kilometres of overhead pylons scarring the Somerset countryside, ruining the lives of local people, tourism and businesses.
Tessa said: “I am committed to finding alternatives to the universally unpopular National Grid plan to erect pylons across the Somerset countryside. The Greenwire project clearly shows it is possible to use both underground and underwater methods to revamp our crumbling energy infrastructure, not just having to revert to 1920’s technology destroying communities and our countryside”.
Tessa Munt
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Notes for editors:
For more information – http://www.greenwire.ie/ and http://www.elpower.com/