A plan to build the world’s longest subsea cable that will carry clean energy from Morocco to the UK just got streamlined.

The world’s longest subsea cable

The British government designated the Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project. That means the infrastructure the project needs will be approved at the national level, thus bypassing local planning requirements.

Simon Morrish, CEO of the UK-based renewables company Xlinks, the project’s developer, said that the designation is “a major milestone for our project, which provides certainty and clarity over the legal process and timescales for consenting the project.”

This trailblazer of a project will generate 10.5 GW of clean energy from solar and wind to deliver 3.6 GW of energy for an average of 20+ hours a day. Once it’s complete, it will deliver clean power to over 7 million British homes by 2030 – that’s 8% of Great Britain’s electricity needs.

Xlinks will construct 7 GW of solar and 3.5 GW of wind, along with 20 GWh/5 GW battery storage in Morocco. It’s going to cover an area of around 579 square miles (1,500 sq km).

It will be connected exclusively to the UK grid via 2,361 miles (3,800 km) of HVDC subsea cables. They’ll follow a shallow water route from Morocco to the UK, past Spain, Portugal, and France.

The transmission cable will consist of four cables. The first cable will be active in early 2027, and the other three are slated to launch in 2029. An agreement has been reached with the National Grid for two 1.8 GW connections at Alverdiscott in Devon.

Solar panels generate about three times more power in Morocco than they would in the UK, and they’ll generate as much as five times more power from January to March than they would in the UK. Plus, the Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project is expected to create nearly 10,000 jobs in Morocco, and 2,000 of those positions will be permanent.

Xlinks has estimated the cost to be between £20 billion ($24.47 billion) and £22 billion.

Electrek’s Take

There have been a lot of bad decisions about clean and fossil fuel energy coming out of the UK in the last couple weeks, so the subsea cable boost is welcome news.

Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak has been busy weakening net zero targets by pushing back the ban on the sale of new gas cars from 2030 to 2035 and approving the development of Rosebanks, the biggest new North Sea oilfield in years. Further, offshore wind developers aren’t bidding on domestic projects because the British government’s guaranteed price offered for power generated is too low.

The UK has a goal of achieving net zero electricity by 2035. The Morocco project will help, but the floundering Tory government really needs to get its act together pronto on clean energy policy, as it’s on the brink of destroying the country’s reputation as a net zero leader – if it hasn’t already. And that’s a great disappointment.

Read more: In a ‘bone-headed’ move, the UK to roll back gas car phase-out and other net zero policies

Photo: Maria Sanchez on Pexels.com

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