Nicosia, Cyprus – Chyprus and neighboring Israel are trying to quickly establish an electricity link through an underwater cable that would eliminate their respective energy isolation, an official said Monday.
The Minister of Energy, George Papanastasiou, said that Israel is particularly interested in ensuring that he can trust Chipriot energy reserves of conventional and renewable sources to feed the country if the need ever arises.
Pananstasiou told Associated Press that Cyprus would soon have the ability to generate about four electricity gigawats from fossil fuels, as well as sources of solar and wind energy, while consuming only 0.5 GW.
Wind and photovoltaic turbines generate 1 GW of electricity, but licenses for the construction of new wind and solar energy parks with a capacity of 2.8 GW have been issued. Conventional fuels generate 1.4 GW.
The shared commitment for an electricity cable link was affirmed on Sunday when President Chipriot Nikos Christodoulides held conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a one -day visit to Israel and Ramallah, Bank.
Both leaders said the electricity link would show the geographical location of the two countries such as the natural doors between Europe and the Middle East.
Papanastasiou said that given this geographical advantage, the two leaders agreed to pursue the potential benefits of the establishment of a trade, energy and digital connectivity corridor between India, Middle East and Europe.
The runner, known as the Economic Corridor of India Middle East-Europeo IMEC, was presented in the group of 20 summits of the 20 of the rich and developing nations of the world in 2023.
Netanyahu said on Sunday that he had recently spoken with Indian counterpart Narendra Modi about Imec, which according to him was “a very revolutionary and transformative development that we want to put into practice.”
Separately, a Electricity Cable Project To link Greece with Cyprus is already underway. The interconnector of 1.94 billion euros ($ 2.19 billion), or GSI, is financed by the European Union for a sum of 800 million euros ($ 903 million).
Progress has slowed due to Turkish objections on the cable course. Türkiye says that the project cannot proceed without its consent because the cable would go through the waters that affirm that they are under their jurisdiction.
