The Environmental Authority issued recommendations to better assess the impacts of a contested private electrical interconnection project between France and Great Britain, according to a report published Friday by the French Ministry of Ecological Transition.
Developed by the British company Aquind, the project involves creating a 2,000-megawatt (MW) undersea interconnection linking the electrical grids of France and Great Britain.
On the French side, the project includes creating two 73 km long undersea direct current (DC) connections, two 36 km long underground DC connections, and a current conversion station in Varneville-Bretteville (Seine-Maritime).
Prompted by the prefect of Seine-Maritime to review the French segment of the project, the independent Environmental Authority examined several “environmental issues” concerning “marine and aquatic environments, particularly the La Scie river” and its catchment areas, “wetlands,” “noise pollution,” the landscape regarding the conversion station’s location, and “agricultural land use.”
In its report issued Thursday, the authority recommended “supplementing the dossier with elements ensuring that the technical solutions, not yet known pending tenders or ongoing route studies, have minimal environmental impacts, which are evaluated and controlled.”
It also called for specifying the “impacts, measures, and risks during the land construction phase (greenhouse gas emissions, air, water, soil pollution, noise, traffic, waste, invasive exotic species) and the marine phase (notably noise), as well as during the operational phase (noise) for the conversion station.”
In development for several years, this €1.4 billion project was rejected by the UK government in 2022 before the judiciary in January 2023 decided to refer the case back to the Department for Energy (BEIS) for reconsideration.
According to its developer, the Aquind Interconnector will transport over 17 TWh of electricity annually between Great Britain and France, equivalent to 5.5% and 3.8% of their respective electricity consumption in 2023.
The British electrical grid is already connected to the continent via several links, including three with France, one with Norway, and another with Denmark.