Norway just sent electricity to Germany through a cable that runs for 623 kilometers under the North Sea. It took 10 years to build and cost $2.3 billion. It paid for itself in the first winter alone.
The North Sea Link — the world's longest submarine power cable — connects Kvilldal pumping station in southwestern Norway to Blyth in northeast England and onward to Germany's grid through existing interconnectors. When it was proposed, critics called it economically unjustifiable, technically risky, and politically complicated.
They were wrong on all three counts.
The first full winter of North Sea Link operations coincided with the European energy crisis. Norwegian hydroelectric power flowing through the cable to Germany displaced gas generation that would have cost German consumers €1.8 billion more at crisis gas prices. The cable's entire construction cost was effectively recovered in a single season.
What no financial model predicted was the behavioral shift. Norwegian hydropower reservoir managers now optimize their water release schedules against German and British electricity prices — holding water during low-price periods and releasing it during price spikes, turning Norwegian mountain reservoirs into a financial instrument that benefits European consumers while maximizing Norwegian generation revenue.
The cable is not infrastructure. It is the circulatory system of a continent learning to share its clean energy.
North Sea Link is why Europe will win the clean energy transition. Not because any individual country is clever enough. Because they are finally connected.
Statnett — National Grid UK — 2024
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