neverwas wrote:
snip
"There was or is a DC power cable across the north of the North Sea
beween Scotland and Norway????" Purpose of which to share power
between those two countries which have hydro generating capabilities.
Seem to remember reading about it in the mid 1950s.


No way.

ISTR the cross-channel link to France was the announced as the first
UK-Europe power sharing. And that seems to be confirmed by a quick
Google which brings up the history here with no mention of Scotland
until 2001 to NI
http://www2.theiet.org/oncomms/secto...53EE3D46B2112D


Yes. I visited it in the 60's and it was as far as I know the ONLY
external grid link in the UK at that time, and as far as I know still is.

Things that stand out from the visit.

- a room, a very large room FULL of thyratron valves ..each one about 8
foot tall.

- about 6 acres of capacitors to smooth the output.

- Some inductors the size of houses for the same purpose..

- "we can draw a 30KV arc off the line for several hours after
switchoff" from the engineer showing us round.

A technical marvel, and JUST ABOUT worth it economically.

I found a couple of references to linking the Orkney and Shetlands using
undersea cables (under consideration): Currently the largest is IIRC in
the USA ad is 65m long. National grid had(has?)plans to do a half a
billion quid one of a gigawatt capacity to Holland. That is the same
order of cost as a half gigawatt power station..

Cost are somewhere near a million quid a mile. More for larger power
levels like the above.

No references to any scotland- Morway links tho.