UAE, Italy and Albania team up to build $1bn undersea energy cable

Clean energy produced in Albania will be exported to Italy across the Adriatic as part of the three-nation agreement

President Sheikh Mohamed meeting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week on Wednesday. EPA

The UAE, Italy and Albania are teaming up to build a subsea interconnector for exporting renewable energy across the Adriatic.

As part of the deal, green power produced in Albania will be exported to Italy through an undersea cable, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

The total value of the deal is €1 billion ($1 billion) and the project is expected to be operational within three years, according to a report by Italy's Ansa news agency.

“We strongly believe in this project involving our three governments, as well as our private sector and grid operators,” Ms Meloni said. The initiative “tangibly shows new forms of co-operation can be built even among seemingly distant partners, at least geographically speaking."

She added that developing interconnections can be the keystone of a "new energy diplomacy, to multiply opportunities for co-operation among us and generate shared benefits for all".

The three countries signed the agreement in the presence of President Sheikh Mohamed, Ms Meloni and Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama and the partnership marks “a significant step towards enhancing energy security, promoting sustainable development, and accelerating the transition to clean energy in the Mediterranean region”, Wam reported.

The agreement outlines key areas of co-operation including the deployment of gigawatt-scale renewable energy projects in Albania, focusing on solar photovoltaics, wind and hybrid solutions with potential battery storage. A significant portion of this renewable energy will be transported to Italy.

“The new era of global interconnectivity is essential for meeting the commitment to triple renewable energy, drive decarbonisation, increase energy access and boost economic growth,” Dr Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, Cop28 President and chairman of Masdar, said.

“By leveraging the UAE's world-class expertise in renewable energy, Albania's abundant natural resources and Italy's sophisticated energy market, we are connecting nations in far-sighted collaboration for the development and sharing of renewable energy capacity across the Mediterranean.”

Mr Rama said the deal is an "important step for the region and also for Europe, and would not have been possible "without the significant collaboration with the UAE".

He also said Albania's renewable energy share in final energy demand amounts to 44 per cent and that "this makes Albania part of the top list of the European countries, together with Scandinavian countries, in terms of how much the renewable energy share is in final energy demand as a number".

The latest deal follows the signing of a preliminary joint venture agreement between Masdar and Albania's state power utility Kesh on the sidelines of Cop29 in November to establish a strategic partnership to develop, construct and operate renewable energy projects in Albania.

“Albania’s abundant natural resources, coupled with the strengths of our partners, will not only drive the green energy transition but will also create long-term economic and job opportunities,” Belinda Balluku, the country's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, said.

There is an increased pressure on the international community to boost efforts to meet the global goal of tripling renewable energy capacity and doubling energy efficiency by 2030. The goals are critical to maintaining the 1.5°C threshold established in the Paris Agreement in 2015, a treaty in which 195 nations pledged to tackle climate change.

In October, the International Renewable Energy Agency said global investment in renewable energy must triple to $1.5 trillion annually by 2030 to meet its renewables goal. Despite record spending of $570 billion in 2023, national plans are set to deliver only half of the required renewable power growth, the Abu Dhabi-based agency said after the pre-Cop29 talks in Azerbaijan.