"We confirm we have received a decision by the Swedish government today on its final approval to the NordBalt project," Lithuania's Ambassador in Stockholm Eitvydas Bajarūnas told BNS.
The Swedish government said on its website that the Cabinet of ministers decided to authorize the state-run company Affarsverket Svenska Kraftnat to build the power link, which will connect the electricity networks of Sweden and Lithuania.
NordBalt will consist of a 40-kilometer cable on land and 400-kilometer section on the bottom of the Baltic Sea between Nybro in Sweden and Klaipėda in Lithuania.
"We need a better integrated and a more efficient electricity market and power transmission capacities in Europe. The NordBalt project will be highly significant for the interconnection of the Baltic and Nordic electricity networks and contribute to ensuring safe electricity supplies in Sweden and the Baltic states," Sweden's Information Technologies and Energy Minister Anna-Karin Hatt said in a press release.
Scheduled for the end of 2015, completion of the NordBalt project will produce a 300kV direct current connection with a capacity of 700 MW, which equals that of a large hydro-electric power plant.
