The European Union (EU) has agreed to provide €10m (£8.45m) financing to part fund the development of 1.4GW Northconnect power link between Scotland and Norway.
Estimated to cost £1.3bn, the NorthConnect electricity superhighway across the North Sea is jointly owned by Swedish utility Vattenfall and the Norwegian companies, E-CO Energi, Agder Energi and Lyse.
EU will part fund the development phase of the 650km North Sea interconnector from the Connecting Europe Facility, the EU’s funding support program for infrastructure.
NorthConnect deputy project manager Richard Blanchfield said: “The decision demonstrates that the European Union considers the NorthConnect Project important to achieving the strategic goals of increasing security of energy supply, and contributing to sustainable development by integrating renewable energy sources across the European Union.”
The NorthConnect link, which is expected to help meet around 25% of Scottish peak electricity demand, will run from Scotland’s Aberdeenshire coast to the west coast of Norway.
NorthConnect said that the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) has published the energy infrastructure projects which are selected to receive EU funding support.
NorthConnect CEO and project manager Tommy Løvstad said: “We look forward to further co-operation with INEA and the Connecting Europe Facility.”
Work on the project is scheduled to commence in 2019 and complete in 2022.
The NorthConnect project, which will have an operational life of more than 60 years, is expected to create around 200 jobs during construction phase.