The European Union has approved co-funding of €14 million from the total €29 million which is the estimated cost of the pre-planning surveys. The surveys are a series of studies which begin in June 2017 and are estimated for completion in 2020.

The first phase of the electric conductor will provide for 1,000 MW over a length of 1,518 kilometres.

Meanwhile, in another important development, the EuroAsia Interconnector will be accompanied by a high-capacity underwater fibre optics cable.

The fibre optics cable will transfer enormous amounts of data, enough to support 80 million high definition video calls between Asia and Europe.

Laying down the underwater fibre optics cable at the same time as the EuroAsia Interconnector makes for excellent synergies and drastic reductions in cost, making it competitive.

The fibre optics cable, at 2cm wide, will have a 160 Tbps capacity and will allow Cyprus to host large data bases and other data storage and processing centres.

In its first stages, the fibre optic cable will connect Israel to Cyprus, Crete, and then mainland Greece. The next stage will be to connect the cable to Italy, France, and Bilbao in Spain, with the goal of an eventual transatlantic connection to the USA.

Source: InCyprus