Nine European nations are banding together to make a $40 billion investment in a forward-thinking, super-grid to supply Europe\u2019s future energy needs. The project offers an object lesson in what enlightened, big-picture, public investment in energy could look like in the US, where the antique power grid grows more decrepit and ineffectual by the hour.<\/p>\n
The Breakthrough Institute<\/a> describes the ambitious project this way:<\/p>\n It would connect turbines off the wind-lashed north coast of Scotland with Germany’s vast arrays of solar panels, and join the power of waves crashing on to the Belgian and Danish coasts with the hydro-electric dams nestled in Norway’s fjords: Europe’s first electricity grid dedicated to renewable power will become a political reality…,as nine countries formally draw up plans to link their clean energy projects around the North Sea.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The nine countries signed up are Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland and the UK. They hope to have the grid operational within the next decade.\u00a0 It is seen as an essential step towards the European Union’s pledge to source 20 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2020, reports CNN\u00a0 Tech<\/a>.<\/p>\n The supergrid will also perform the task of a gigantic 30GW battery for Europe\u2019s alternative and clean energy, reports Renewable Energy<\/a>.<\/p>\n This grid will store electricity when energy demand is low. The North Sea grid would also operate as a spine of the future European electricity super-grid, where more energy will be produced from renewable energy sources. They are also trying to overcome the problem of unreliability associated with alternative energy. This supergird will have electricity available in all types of unpredictable weather, because at least one phenomenon of nature will be happening such as blowing wind, lapping waves or shiny sun.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n