{"id":247344,"date":"2025-07-08T06:53:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T06:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/247344\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T06:53:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T06:53:12","slug":"surveys-to-begin-at-ireland-wales-interconnector-in-ten-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/247344\/","title":{"rendered":"Surveys to begin at Ireland-Wales interconnector in ten days"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Belgian GeoXYZ will be kicking off site investigations this month for a 750 MW electricity interconnector that will link Ireland and Wales.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"565\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/geo-768x565.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>Geo Ocean VI. Source: GeoXYZ<\/p>\n<p>The MaresConnect interconnector will comprise a cable route of approximately 245 kilometers under the sea and underground between Dublin in Ireland and Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire in Wales.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 750 MW electricity link is being developed by MaresConnect Limited, owned by Foresight Group\u2019s energy transition fund,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.offshore-energy.biz\/sustainability-led-investor-buys-majority-stake-in-new-uk-interconnector\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Foresight Energy Infrastructure Partners (FEIP)<\/a>, and Etchea Energy Nominees Limited (EENL).<\/p>\n<p>GeoXYZ will deploy the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.offshore-energy.biz\/2014-built-hybrid-survey-vessel-joins-geoxyz-fleet\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">53.8-meter-long Geo Ocean VI<\/a> to complete geophysical survey operations. The vessel will survey a 500-meter corridor along the planned route in Irish waters, using multibeam echosounder, side-scan sonar, magnetometer and sub-bottom profilers.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, the vessel will complete environmental sampling operations along the proposed subsea cable route, as well as geotechnical sampling operations, with locations to be determined following the geophysical survey.<\/p>\n<p>The survey operations are planned to start on July 18, weather permitting. The expected duration for all works is up to 44 days, including weather and other downtime, with completion expected by August 31.<\/p>\n<p>MaresConnect is an integral part of the MARES project, which aims to integrate 1,750 MW of new renewable energy sources and 6 GWh of pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) in Mayo in the west of Ireland to the GB and SEM networks, as well as provide increased interconnector capacity and voltage stability.<\/p>\n<p>The project secured\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.offshore-energy.biz\/ofgem-grants-electricity-interconnector-license-for-great-britain-ireland-link\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">an interconnector license from Ofgem<\/a>\u00a0in June 2022 and a 750 MW grid connection agreement at the National Grid\u2019s Bodelwyddan substation. At the end of 2024, Great Britain\u2019s energy market regulator <a href=\"https:\/\/www.offshore-energy.biz\/great-britain-approves-five-undersea-energy-links-two-being-its-first-offshore-hybrid-assets\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">approved the interconnector<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/67914670-e3b2-4ac8-980b-db27855fc06f.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\ud835\udc03\ud835\udc28 \ud835\udc32\ud835\udc28\ud835\udc2e \ud835\udc30\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc27\ud835\udc2d \ud835\udc2d\ud835\udc28 \ud835\udc20\ud835\udc2b\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc1b \ud835\udc2d\ud835\udc21\ud835\udc1e \ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc2d\ud835\udc2d\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc27\ud835\udc2d\ud835\udc22\ud835\udc28\ud835\udc27 \ud835\udc28\ud835\udc1f \ud835\udc32\ud835\udc28\ud835\udc2e\ud835\udc2b \ud835\udc2d\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc2b\ud835\udc20\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc2d \ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc2e\ud835\udc1d\ud835\udc22\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc27\ud835\udc1c\ud835\udc1e \ud835\udc22\ud835\udc27 \ud835\udc28\ud835\udc27\ud835\udc1e \ud835\udc26\ud835\udc28\ud835\udc2f\ud835\udc1e? <\/p>\n<p>\ud835\udc07\ud835\udc2e\ud835\udc2b\ud835\udc2b\ud835\udc32 \ud835\udc2e\ud835\udc29 \ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc27\ud835\udc1d \ud835\udc2d\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc24\ud835\udc1e \ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc1d\ud835\udc2f\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc27\ud835\udc2d\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc20\ud835\udc1e \ud835\udc28\ud835\udc1f \ud835\udc28\ud835\udc2e\ud835\udc2b \ud835\udc2c\ud835\udc2e\ud835\udc26\ud835\udc26\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc2b \ud835\udc2c\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc25\ud835\udc1e \ud835\udc1d\ud835\udc22\ud835\udc2c\ud835\udc1c\ud835\udc28\ud835\udc2e\ud835\udc27\ud835\udc2d \ud835\udc28\ud835\udc1f \ud835\udc2e\ud835\udc29 \ud835\udc2d\ud835\udc28 \ud835\udfd3\ud835\udfce% \ud835\udc28\ud835\udc27 \ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc1d\ud835\udc2f\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc2b\ud835\udc2d\ud835\udc22\ud835\udc2c\ud835\udc22\ud835\udc27\ud835\udc20 \ud835\udc29\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc1c\ud835\udc24\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc20\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc2c!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Belgian GeoXYZ will be kicking off site investigations this month for a 750 MW electricity interconnector that will&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,95789,4884,678,95790,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-247344","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-geoxyz","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-maresconnect","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114816300385788392","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}