The press is reporting a considerable increase in the financing of the Princess Elisabeth energy island, with the bill rising from €2.2 billion to nearly €7 billion.
In a plenary session of the Chamber, federal MP Mathieu Bihet questioned the Energy Minister about this announced cost explosion, but ultimately received little response.
As a reminder, the Princess Elisabeth island project was to take shape around 45 kilometres off the Belgian coast and was intended to handle both alternating and direct current. This connection to the mainland was meant to bring ashore the 3.5 GW of energy that the offshore wind farm will have to produce by 2030. The island also planned interconnections with other countries, such as the United Kingdom and Denmark.
“Twice the CREG warned the Energy Minister about these cost increases. Yet the minister's office took no action in response and did not even inform the Government. Now she is passing the buck to the CREG and Elia,” says federal MP Mathieu Bihet, expressing his surprise.
“Furthermore, Elia, the main stakeholder in the project, acknowledges facing a significant increase in the costs of high-voltage electrical materials, but refuses to disclose the amounts involved. Faced with this unprecedented budgetary pile-up, I asked, on behalf of the MR Group, that the Energy committee be convened as soon as the parliamentary session resumes and that the Minister provide us with all the documents received by her office, so that we can shed light on what increasingly looks like a state scandal.”
Read the article in the DH
Read the article in La Libre