British company Xlinks, has announced plans to build 10.5 Giga Watts of wind and solar parks in Morocco and sell the generated power in the UK. According to the company’s CEO, Simon Morrish, in an interview with PV magazine, this should be made possible by a 3,800 km high voltage direct current transmission line, the longest subsea power transmission link in the world, that would be connected to Morocco with the UK
Simon Morrish also revealed in the interview that, “Xlinks are in discussions with Moroccan community leaders and government regarding the exact sites of the solar farm and working on permitting with the relevant departments,” The company, which includes among its board members Paddy Padmanathan, the president and CEO of Saudi energy giant ACWA Power, is planning to deploy the project, which would consist of 7 GW of solar capacity and 3.5 GW of wind in Morocco.

Overall, Xlinks expects to invest about $25 billion for the entire mega project and will negotiate a price of $0.67 per kWh of electricity generated in Africa. With this project, the company hopes to put a very valuable electricity supply to the UK grid and aid further penetration of offshore wind and the overall decarbonization of the country. The independent power producer plans to begin construction soon, with the first submarine cable ready by 2027 and the second expected to be completed in 2029.[…]