The Republic of Cyprus has recently issued the final building permit for EuroAsia Interconnector between Israel, Cyprus and Greece (Crete).
Specifically, the relevant permit provides the green light for the construction of the HVDC converter station in Cyprus.
In March this year , EuroAsia Interconnector Limited picked Siemens as the main candidate for the job.
Cyprus has also previously given the planning permit for the HVDC converter station with a capacity of 2,000 MW, as well as the landing points of the subsea cable that connects the electricity networks of Cyprus and Israel with Greece (Crete) and the EU.
In June this year, the 33-year land lease agreement got inked at the Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry in Nicosia, for the construction of the HVDC converter station in Cyprus.
The European Commission, with the support of the Cyprus Government and in agreement of the Greek Government, has appointed EuroAsia Interconnector Limited as the owner project promoter of EuroAsia Interconnector.
The project promoter has the option to renew the lease for two more periods of 33 years each.
The necessary environmental, technical and other studies have also wrapped up and the relevant permits received from the Cyprus authorities.
The phase one construction cost of the EuroAsia Interconnector interconnection with a transmission capacity of 1,000MW is about €2.5 billion.
Commissioning of the Cyprus-Greece (Crete) interconnection should take place by December 2023.
Likewise, the Israel-Cyprus electricity interconnector should complete by December 2023.
The project is an energy highway bridging Asia and Europe, with a total length of 1,208 kilometres. It also creates a reliable alternative route for the transfer of electric energy to and from Europe.