Fab Link cables can be run up to Alderney’s shoreline

The project involves a set of cables being laid across 220km of seabed from France to Britain via Alderney.

Contractual negotiations are still rumbling on with the States of Alderney over permission to run the cable across the island and the project remains controversial.

But in a statement released by Fab, the States of Guernsey’s Office of Environmental Health and Pollution has approved Fab’s application for a Food and Environmental Pollution Act licence for a route that takes the subsea interconnector through Alderney’s territorial waters and makes landfall at Longis.

The application was submitted in January 2017.

Because of the lengthy nature of negotiations with the States of Alderney and uncertainty over whether a favourable conclusion will be reached, Fab has identified an alternative route for the cable which goes around Alderney’s three nautical miles territorial limits.

The OEHPR has informed Fab that it does not require a licence to install and maintain the cables on this alternative route.

The Fab project was created with the aim of connecting up to 1.4GW of tidal stream energy harvested in Alderney waters with the grids in France and Britain.

It is due to make landfall in the UK at Budleigh Salterton in East Devon.

Chris Jenner, the Fab project’s development manager, said the decisions by the OEHPR represent another significant step forward for its proposals.

‘We have now secured all the necessary offshore permissions that will enable the Fab Project to install and maintain the marine cables between Britain and France, whether we choose to progress the original route that makes landfall at Alderney or the alternative route around Alderney.

‘Both options retain the ability for the Fab Project to provide a route to market for future tidal stream energy generation from the waters around Alderney.’