Iceland's volcanoes may power UK

The British energy minister will visit Iceland next month to discuss the prospects of connecting its abundant geothermal energy to supply power to the UK.

Low-carbon electricity could soon be flowing into the UK from Iceland, under government-backed plans for thousands of miles of high-voltage cables across the ocean floor.

Charles Hendry, minister of state for energy, told the Guardian newspaper that the British government was in active discussions with the Icelandic government over the proposal, which would involve laying 1,000 to 1,500km long - easily the longest in the world - cables all the way to Iceland, which sits over a mid-ocean split in the earth's crust.

Hendry has already discussed the plan with the head of Iceland's national grid. The web of sea-floor cables known as interconnectors  planned for the next decade would link the UK to a Europe-wide supergrid, which has the backing of the  prime minister.

The supergrid would integrate wind and wave power of northern Europe with solar projects such as Desertec in southern Europe and north Africa to provide reliable, clean energy to meet climate change targets and reduce dependence on fossil fuel imports.

Two international interconnectors currently exist to France and the Netherlands, but nine more are either in construction, formal planning or undergoing feasibility studies. The next to be commissioned, in autumn 2012, is a link between the Republic of Ireland and Wales, that will see green energy from the windswept Atlantic coast of Ireland delivered to British homes.