Menorca will be the last of the Balearic Islands to be connected to the mainland via a new electricity cable. Red Eléctrica Española estimate that the Menorcan phase will be carried out in 2014, at a cost of 80 million euros; part of the Rómulo project which will link Mallorca (from Santa Ponça) via a cable to Morvedre (near Sagunto) in Valencia.
The 'Giulio Verne', one of only two boats specialising in this kind of work, set sail from Palma on Thursday to lay a continuous length of three-core cable, 240 kilometres long, that will supply electricity from the mainland to Mallorca in five months. At a cost of 375 million euros, this is the second largest project of its kind carried out in Europe, after the connection between Sardinia and the Italian mainland for which the cable was also laid by the 'Giulio Verne'.
In five months the cable will be ready to carry a continuous current to the Balearics, which will then be converted to alternate current and distributed via the Mallorcan grid, thus ending the archipelago's isolation in respect of electricity, improving the reliability of the supply and reducing the cost. According to Red Eléctrica Española there were around fifteen breaks in the electricity supply in the Balearics last year which will be avoided with the new connection. The project will also be able to cope with the increased demand for electricity which has risen by more than 70% in the last decade. As a result, all the region's electricity generating stations will work less, reducing the amount of CO2 emissions by 10%.
Ibiza will be connected to Mallorca in 2013 at a cost of 160 million euros, bringing the total cost of the project to over 600 million euros. With an estimated reduction in production costs of between 30 and 40 million per year the project should pay for itself in ten years.