Leading cable making companies Nexans and Prysmian have joined the Transgreen consortium and signed a draft agreement for the creation of a trans-Mediterranean super-grid.
Transgreen is a new and, insofar as it involves cross-Med links, an unprecedented industry initiative. It is aimed initially at studying the feasibility of a power transmission grid between the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean and at developing interconnections around the Mediterranean Basin. It is part of the Mediterranean Solar Plan (MSP), French-led initiative srt up in July 2008 which provides for the building of renewable – mainly solar and wind – power generation facilities in the southern and eastern areas of the Mediterranean, with a total output of 20 GW by 2020. The 13 signing companies will collaborate within a common legal entity, brought about specifically to propose the technical and economical master plan for a trans-Mediterranean super-grid with a 5 GW export capacity to Europe by 2020.
The Transgreen signatories are now Abengoa, AFD, Alstom, Areva, Atos Origin, CDC Infrastructure, EDF, Nexans, Prysmian, RED Eléctrica de España, RTE, Siemens and Taqa Arabia. The partners will be centrally co-ordinated by a corporate body aimed at studying the technical, industrial, economic, financial, regulatory and institutional aspects of a transmission system for power coming mainly from renewable sources in the Mediterranean.
The Mediterranean Solar Plan is a French-led initiative announced on 13 July 2008 at the Paris Summit for the Mediterranean region, and exists under the auspices of Union for the Mediterranean, an organisation backed by the French government and the EU and intended to ease the co-operation of Mediterranean nations in various areas including energy and transport. The UM is founded on the belief that “market deployment as well as research and development of all alternative sources of energy are a major priority in efforts towards assuring sustainable development” and requires that the “feasibility, development and creation of a Mediterranean Solar Plan” are examined.
The objective is to reach 20 GW of new renewable energy capacities by 2020 in the region, out of which 3-4 GW would be covered by PV, 5-6 GW by wind and 10-12 GW by CSP. The physical interconnection of Tunisia-Italy and Turkey-Greece would be a pre-requisite for the implementation of such a plan, while a principal generating component would be the Desertec solar project.
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