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The Eastern Green Link 2 project (EGL2) sets an unprecedented commercial standard in the British electricity transmission sector. Multinational company Prysmian will manufacture conductors composed entirely of recycled copper from the La Farga Genius range. This initiative will interconnect the towns of Peterhead in Scotland and Drax in England via a 505-kilometer subsea superhighway. The system will have a capacity of 2 gigawatts to supply two million homes.
Guaranteed traceability of the Eastern Green Link 2 project
Regarding the technical validation of the material, the supplier company La Farga has issued an Environmental Product Declaration. This document certifies the origin of the 10,000 tons of copper supplied. Unlike mass balance schemes, this mechanism ensures that the metal is physically contained in the rods. The sustainable financing for this component was made possible by Ofgem’s Sustainability Innovation Fund.
In parallel, the adoption of this metallurgical supply will generate an ecological benefit measured in the mitigation of global warming. Preliminary analyses estimate that replacing primary copper will avoid the emission of nearly 56,675 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. This figure represents the impact of removing approximately 39,900 average British vehicles from circulation. Similarly, it is equivalent to neutralizing the annual emissions of 17,700 households in East Riding of Yorkshire.
Therefore, Prysmian’s corporate operations will register a 13% reduction in the total carbon footprint assigned to the project. Likewise, the implementation of this technical standard demonstrates that critical national grid infrastructure can reduce its environmental impact. This advancement is achieved while maintaining the reliability, conductivity, and durability required by high-voltage direct current grids.
Source and photo: Prysmian
