COMPETITIVENESS OF RENEWABLE ENERGY FROM ICELAND VIA THE PROPOSED ICELAND UK HVDC SUBMARINE CABLE LINK/

This paper extends earlier work presented in IEEE papers to assess via bility of connecting the UK, The Netherlands and Norway to the propose d Iceland/UK HVdc submarine cable link, and cost of delivered power to these countries should the connection go ahead. Likely profit from th e development for electricity supplied to the UK considering alternati ve routes, varying discount rates, possible carbon/fossil fuel levies, and fossil fuel emission constraints are illustrated in the compariso ns that are made. It is concluded that power from Iceland is viable in all but the most exacting scenarios and the best landing point for th e cable is the North of Scotland. There are no technical reasons why t he Link should not proceed. There would not seem to be significant adv antages in tying in existing national markets in The Netherlands and N orway at this time should the development go ahead. The Link should be designed for base-load operation at high load factor, and the most ad vantageous return on capital employed would probably be realised by in dependent operation of the development where contracts for the supply of electricity are negotiated direct with prospective customers in the UK and electricity is supplied to the Pool.