ICELANDIC volcanoes could be piping power to homes across the UK through a Scottish subsea cable, under plans to be announced by the Prime Minister.

David Cameron is expected to announce the move to provide a "green battery" through an electricity link between Britain and Iceland at the Northern Future Forum in Reykjavik.

The multi-billion pound interconnector - involving 750 miles of undersea cabling - would enable the direct export of hydro and geothermal-generated electricity to be exported directly to Britain.

The Herald: Icelands volcanoes could fuel ScotlandIcelands volcanoes could fuel Scotland

Previous plans have earmarked the north of Scotland as first point of contact with the UK which would create jobs in construction and maintenance at the place where the cable would come ashore.

A new UK-Iceland Energy Task Force set up to examine the feasibility of the scheme will report back within six months.

Officials said the project, which would take between seven and 10 years to construct, would provide a long-term, renewable source of energy increasing Britain's future energy security.

Currently, Iceland gets around 95 per cent of its electricity from renewable hydro or geothermal sources.

Lang Banks, WWF Scotland's director, said earlier that the plan could be the forerunner of wider energy links allowing Scotland to share power with other European countries.

He said that if "Scotland and the rest of Europe are to move to a 100 per cent renewable future then greater use of interconnectors is a sensible way forward".

Mr Banks also suggested that as well as power from volcanoes, solar power could be piped from the Mediterranean into the UK while Scotland could export power from wind and wave generation to countries like Poland as global energy prices continue to rise.

The cable between Iceland and Scotland would bring renewable power from Iceland's 200 volcanoes and 600 hot springs.

Previous costings put the price of the cable at £3 billion, and it was said it could create enough electricity every year to power a city the size of Glasgow.

Geothermal energy, sometimes called "volcano power", is taken from the heat stored in the Earth's core and is abundant in Iceland and other parts of the world close to tectonic boundaries.

Mr Cameron has held talks with his Icelandic counterpart Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson ahead of the main Northern Future Forum which joins the UK with leaders from Scandinavia and the Baltic states.

Mr Cameron is the first British Prime Minister to visit Reykjavik since Winston Churchill in 1941.