If a newly announced UK government feasibility study (to be carried out by PB Power) is favourable, a project to build a 400 mile undersea link from the Lanarkshire coast of Scotland to the coast of SW England, linking actual and potential renewables sites on the way would become a reality. The scheme would strengthen critically the access that west coast sources such as wind and wave power have to the national grid and encourage the building of such projects; in addition it would connect them to the higher populations in the south. A severe limitation on renewables to date has been access to the grid – the wave generator on the Scottish island of Islay, for instance, the only commercial wave power station in the world, cannot export more than about half of its capacity to the mainland.
