The EU will provide €10 million (£8.45m) to fund the development of a power interconnector between Scotland and Norway.

The 650-kilometre NorthConnect ‘electricity superhighway’ across the North Sea will receive the funding from the Connecting Europe Facility, the EU’s funding support programme for infrastructure.

The interconnector will have a capacity of 1.4GW, enough to supply a quarter of Scottish peak demand.

Richard Blanchfield, NorthConnect’s Deputy Project Manager, said: “The decision demonstrates that the European Union considers the NorthConnect Project important to achieving the strategic goals of increasing security of energy supply and contributing to sustainable development by integrating renewable energy sources across the European Union.”

The project is due to start construction in 2019 and is expected to reach completion in 2022.

The Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) has published the list of energy infrastructure projects that have been selected to receive financial support from the European Union.

Work has begun on a new electricity connection between Britain and France.