Xlinks Morocco-U.K. Power Project

2023: Britons want to get electricity from Africa. Underwater cable for $25 billion is already being pulled

At the end of November 2023, the British authorities recognized the Xlinks Morocco-U.K. Power Project initiative to create a transcontinental energy bridge as an infrastructure project of national importance. We are talking about the transfer of energy from renewable sources located in Africa through an underwater cable with a length of approximately 3800 km.

The idea behind Xlinks is to build a roughly 200-square-kilometre solar farm in Morocco. An additional wind farm will be deployed. The total design capacity of these facilities will be 11.5 GW. Two electricity transmission cables will pass in the waters of Portugal, northern Spain and southwestern France. They will reach the British coast in North Devon. Each of the HVDC cables will provide 3.6 GW of power.

Submarine cable project from Britain to Morocco

As of October 2023, Xlinks estimates project costs at approximately $25 billion. Commissioning of the system is tentatively scheduled for 2029. It is assumed that the energy bridge will be able to meet up to 8% of Britain's electricity needs.

However, according to the IEEE Spectrum resource, participants in the Xlinks Morocco-U.K. Power Project will have to overcome many political, logistical and financial difficulties. Solar panels and wind turbines are planned to be built in the Moroccan region of Gulimin - Oued Noun: its southeastern part is located in Western Sahara, which is a disputed territory. And therefore, security problems may arise. In addition, it is necessary to receive support from the Moroccan government - despite the fact that electricity will not be supplied to the energy network of this country. Xlinks plans to lay its cables at a depth of up to 700 meters, and therefore strict requirements will be imposed on their characteristics, including in terms of withstand pressure.^[1]

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