Agreement has finally been reached to install an electricity interconnection beween Perpignon (Baixás) in France and Figueres (Santa Llogia) in Spain. Original plans for cables to be mounted on overground pylons and the subject of environmental objections have been dropped in favour of underground cable. The cost increase as a result goes from 80M euros to 700M euros. The cable will run 8.5 kms under the pyrenees through a system of 3 metre diameter tunnels. The total distance will be 64.5 km and the cable will be buried 1.5 metres below ground. Interestingly enough the man who brokered the deal and reached the compromise is neither French or Spanish, but the recently appointed Italian Prime Minister, Mario Monti. Through an EU incentive and the EU stated policy to provide energy exchanges ‘Super Mario’ arranged meetings of the key players and enabling EU grants and loans amounting to 575M euros the compromises were reached. The recent cold spell in Europe brought energy consumption into focus with France’s 65 million population twice breaking the peak of 100,000 megawatt for the first time ever. 8,000 megawatts of that total were imported. France’s THT (Tres Haut Tension) – Very high tension cables carry 320,000 volts prior to regulation and distribution and lately it would be a net exporter to Spain. In 2010 France bought 3.1 TWh (Terra Watt hours) from Spain while it sold 4.5 TWh. France produces upwards of 80% of it’s energy by Nuclear reactors and while Germany is reviewing it’s policy on Nuclear power generation the fact of the matter is that energy consumption is constantly rising and countries within the Europe wide electricity grid cannot filter out electricity generated by nuclear power regardless of their policy.
Trans Pyreneen Electricity High Tension Cable France-Spain
About bill
Worked in the technical / engineering area as a Science Laboratory Technician and as an Aeronautics Engineer. The artistic side involves writing under the nom de plume of Billy Olsenn, his recently written play 'A Case of Wine' was staged by the players group Straight Make-Up at the 2012 Birr one act drama festival. It's next staging was in the one act circuit is in Cavan, at Maudebawn on Sat 10 Nov 2012. Then it was performed in the Bray, Co.Wicklow at the very popular one act festival in January 2013. Next play is FEAR. A dark tale about revenge on the cruel death of two pensioners by young thugs. Neighbours hatch a devious and dangerous plan to exact old-style revenge. Bill is a member of the Drama League of Ireland and his plays have been critically vetted and certified as original pieces of work by the DLI. Another literary project is that of commemoration of an aircraft crash on Djouce mountain in Wicklow in 1946. Bill wrote articles for the 50th, 60th and most recently the 70th anniversary, (12 Aug 2016) all were published in the Wicklow Times and ensured the survivors of the crash, all French Girl Guides, were not forgotten. Articles reproduced on this website. But mostly this site gives a more general European and specific French slant on popular and not so popular articles of French news, translated to English by the author. Each article is translated on a paragraph by paragraph basis so easy to read in either language and even possible to improve either language by comparison of the short English and French paragraphs. Amusez vous bien. The author is currently writing an easy to read technical aviation book centered around the Fokker 50. Another interest is that dealt with in another of Bill's websites www.realnamara.net, a Statue of the mother of God, Mary. It was erected in 1972 in Dublin, at the end of the Bull Wall near Clontarf, and my grandfather William Nelson, was the main instigator of that project. I give talks on the history of the statue and my grandfather's adventurous and dangerous life at sea. Technical assistance with each website is by J O'N.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.