According to proposals announced by the UK and Dutch governments, a massive electricity cable project in the North Sea could provide green power to 1.8 million homes in the UK.

It would attach to offshore wind farms and facilitate the exchange of electricity between the two nations. European nations are under pressure to fulfil their climate commitments to wean themselves off fossil fuels and enhance energy security.

The agreement was announced at an energy summit in Ostend, Belgium.

The LionLink transmission line is currently being developed by the National Grid and the Dutch electricity network TenneT and could be operational by the early 2030s.

The government asserts that LionLink will transport 1.8GW of electricity, giving it the largest capacity of any international electricity line. The existing cross-border transmission capacity between Germany and Denmark is 0.4 GW. UK Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps stated, “We are strengthening our energy security and sending a strong signal to Putin’s Russia that his days of dominating global power markets are well and truly over.”

Last year’s invasion of Ukraine by Russia caused energy prices to skyrocket due to the disruption of gas and crude supplies from Russia to Europe.

The leaders of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway, and the UK wrote on the news website Politico about the Ostend summit, which aims to increase wind power in the North Sea. “We are facing a crisis at the same time that some of our ecosystems are in decline, and offshore wind is an integral part of climate action and safeguarding our energy security,” they wrote.

The government of the UK has made legally binding commitments to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which means that greenhouse gas emissions should cease to increase. According to experts, this will necessitate a massive change from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Environmentalists and experts have criticised existing British plans as insufficient.

The Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit, an energy and climate think tank, greeted the news about LionLink. “The North Sea oil and gas basin is in terminal decline, so unless the deployment of renewables, electric heat pumps and fundamentals such as home insulation is accelerated, we will become more reliant on foreign gas imports,” said Jess Ralston, Head of Energy at the ECIU.

“Due to current government policy, these imports are projected to increase, but the cooperation of this kind should result in greater energy resilience and lower utility bills for households. The UK could become an energy exporter,” she added.