The company behind a $25bn mega-plan to pipe Saharan green power to Europe has insisted it is not planning on dumping the UK for Germany following reports that it is considering its options.
Xlinks is planning to build vast solar and wind farms in the Moroccan desert and transport the clean electricity generated to Europe via an undersea HVDC cable thousands of kilometres long.
Xlinks has always said the plan is to deliver the electricity, 3.6GW of it, to the UK, where it claims it could power over seven million homes and meet around 8% of British electricity needs.
But its intentions were thrown into doubt on Monday when Bloomberg reported that planning documents published on the website of Europe’s transmission system operators revealed it is also considering a German option that bypasses the UK.
This would be a significant embarrassment for the UK government, which last year named Xlinks’ plan a nationally significant infrastructure project.
However, an Xlinks spokesperson insisted to Recharge that the Morocco-UK link is the “primary target and priority for the group.”
Xlinks remains “committed” to the UK link, said the spokesperson, as its recent appointment of former Shell executive James Humfrey as CEO for Xlinks First to lead the project “clearly demonstrates”.
Xlinks is a majority shareholder in Xlinks First, which is solely responsible for delivering the Morocco-UK link.
“Xlinks Ltd is evaluating the feasibility of other links with markets including Germany,” said the spokesperson. “It is not either or, but in addition to.”
The spokesperson said it was “always our vision” at Xlinks that the project “would serve as a model for further links that support the transition to a clean and sustainable energy.”
“It is in this context that we are exploring the feasibility of additional routes with markets including Germany.”
Xlinks founder Simon Morrish told Recharge last year that Xlinks was already working on another project that will be announced soon for a long-distance interconnector not involving the UK.
He imagined a future world in which the UK grid is getting green energy pumped from not just Morocco but other far-flung locations including the US and Iceland, and electricity cables crisscross oceans much like data cables do today.
Morrish had been CEO of Xlinks First but recently stepped aside for former Shell executive Humfrey. Morrish will now take care of Xlinks' new business portfolio, as well as a sister company that aims to fill the supply chain gap for manufacturing and installing subsea cables.
Xlinks has gained considerable traction in recent months, attracting equity investments from Octopus Energy in the UK, as well as global energy giants such as TotalEnergies and Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA).
