(The last sentence of the second paragraph clarifies that 2,400 kilometers of cable are to be laid).

HEESLINGEN (dpa-AFX) - Construction work on the Suedlink electricity highway is progressing. The first cables for the route are being laid in the district of Rotenburg (Wümme) in Lower Saxony, according to the operator Tennet. On Tuesday, the company announced the start of work in the Heeslingen area. The route is intended to transport green electricity from the windy north to southern Germany.

First cables for the electricity highway

Cables have already been laid over a distance of around twelve kilometers, according to a Tennet spokesperson. "We are currently at the very beginning of the cable installation and are ramping up activities step by step." These are the first cables to be laid nationwide for the electricity highway. More than 2,400 kilometers of cable are to be laid.

According to the company, a trench will first be excavated layer by layer. The underground cable is delivered by a heavy-duty transporter and lifted into the trench with the help of a cable winch. As a rule, the cables are installed at a depth of 1.3 to 1.5 meters. At the end, the trench is backfilled with earth. If the route crosses railroad lines, roads or rivers, a special drilling method is used to lay the cables.

Electricity for ten million households

The power line runs through six federal states: from Schleswig-Holstein via Lower Saxony, Hesse and Thuringia to Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Strictly speaking, Suedlink consists of two electricity connections: They begin in Wilster and Brunsbüttel in Schleswig-Holstein, join under the Elbe and only branch out again in southern Germany. One cable ends in Bergrheinfeld in Bavaria, the other in Leingarten in Baden-Württemberg.

The route will ultimately be around 700 kilometers long and supply ten million households with green electricity. Suedlink will transport direct current. This means that less energy is lost than when transporting alternating current. Converters at the end points of the power line will convert the direct current into alternating current. Following the shutdown of nuclear power plants and the coal phase-out, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in particular are dependent on wind power from the north.

Experts believe that the expansion of the electricity grid is necessary as part of the energy transition. Citizens' initiatives and campaign groups have repeatedly voiced concerns about the mega-project in the past and threatened legal action. Among other things, they fear negative effects on agriculture and the environment.

First electricity from the end of 2028

The north-south route was originally scheduled for completion in 2022. According to current planning, the first electricity could flow at the end of 2028. The schedule is ambitious, but realistic, emphasized the Tennet spokesperson. Tennet is responsible for planning and construction in the north of the country, while TransnetBW is responsible for central and southern Germany.

Even the planning and approval procedures are lengthy because the power cables run through private land and fields, among other things. The lines now have to be laid underground - sometimes under rivers, highways and infrastructure. Some roads have to be reinforced so that the heavy construction vehicles can pass everywhere. At Glückstadt near Hamburg, a separate Elbe tunnel is being built for the route, while another section is being laid 200 meters underground in a salt mine near Heilbronn.

Effects on the price of electricity still unclear

Laying underground cables has less impact on the landscape than electricity pylons, but it costs a lot of money. The operators estimate that it will cost around ten billion euros.

It is unclear what the future commissioning of Suedlink will mean for electricity prices. What is certain is that the costs of the project will be passed on to grid charges over decades and will therefore end up with consumers. At the same time, the new route should prevent bottlenecks in the electricity supply - that saves money. In the best-case scenario, no additional electricity needs to be purchased and no additional power plants need to be ramped up. Fewer bottlenecks are therefore less of a burden on the wallet /miu/DP/mis