Mostly a nice article for laymen, about Norwegian efforts to become big in pumped storage.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/norway-wants-to-offer-hydroelectri...

In the end, facts take over:

"Meanwhile, with the €1.4-billion project "NorGer," the Norwegian company Statnett is planning an almost 600-kilometer-long high-voltage power line on the seabed. The direct current cable should, starting in 2018, transport 1,400 megawatts between Norway's southern coast and the Netherlands. "NorGer can come," the Dutch Environment Minister Stefan Birkner said last week. He said his country had achieved the necessary preconditions. "The approval process is very advanced," he said.

But many uncertainties remain. It will be disputed where exactly in the North Sea underground cables will be connected to the German high voltage grid. The station must convert the direct current from the cable into alternating current that can be used on land. Under discussion is a newly constructed facility near the community of Moorriem in northern Germany and a location at the site of the off-line nuclear power plant Unterweser, on the German North Sea coast.

It also remains unclear who will pay for the cables. At Statkraft, they are not ruling out the possibilities of requiring participants to take part in a consortium or buy certain quantities of transmission capacity. Regulatory reasons would prohibit them from building the cables themselves.

Other European countries are also interested in Norway's energy. The Netherlands has had a connection to the Norwegian grid since 2008, thanks to the cable "NorNed." The Danes are connected to their northern neighbors with several cables ("Cross-Skagerrak"). England ("HVDC Norway-Great Britain"), Scotland ("NorthConnect") and recently even Iceland are thinking about cable projects. The British and Dutch and also connected with the newly operational "BritNed" cable. "