Germany and Norway have opened a new undersea cable, the €2 billion ($2.4 billion) project called Nordlink, which directly links the two countries’ electricity networks. It is considered to be the world’s longest subsea electrical interconnector.

It will allow Germany to export excess electricity from its wind parks to Norway.  The 387-mile cable runs under the North Sea, from Germany’s windswept northern state of Schleswig-Holstein to Tonstad in southern Norway. It is estimated it can supply 3.6 million households at once with electricity.

The new system aims to lower the price of electricity in Germany. And the cable will help turn Norway, which is also Western Europe's largest oil and gas exporter, into a green-energy hub for the region, the new head of state-owned transmission system operator Statnett told Reuters.

The launch follows the German government's recent announcement that it aims to reduce the country’s greenhouse-gas emissions to “net zero” by 2045.

Andrea Zander is website content editor at Institutional Real Estate, Inc.