Oil supermajor backs $25bn Xlinks bid to pipe Saharan green power 4,000km to UK
TotalEnergies joins Octopus and Abu Dhabi as investor in ambitious project to tap 10GW of desert wind and solar
Oil giant TotalEnergies has joined a £20bn ($25.3bn) plan to pipe renewable power almost 4,000km from Morocco to England, in a boost to one of the world’s most ambitious green energy projects.
The French supermajor invested £20m for a minority stake in the company advancing Xlinks, which aims to tap 11.5GW of Saharan wind and solar for transmission via 3.6GW of subsea cables to provide power more than seven million homes in far off Britain.
TotalEnergies joins co-investors Octopus Energy and Abu Dhabi’s TAQA as a backer of the plan, which was declared a nationally significant project by the UK in September.
Xlinks was founded in 2019 and its management team includes Paddy Padmanathan, the former CEO of Saudi Arabia-based power group ACWA, and Sir Dave Lewis, who for many years was the CEO of Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket chain.
Xlinks CEO Simon Morrish said: “TotalEnergies’ investment goes far beyond capital, providing a rare combination of expertise in areas that meet the unique challenges we face. This marks a highly successful end to 2023 and will give us an even greater impetus to achieve our goals as we enter 2024.” The proejct has previously said it hopes to be up and running as soon as 2030.
Vincent Stoquart, SVP renewables at TotalEnergies, claimed Xlinks “will benefit from our track record in developing large and complex integrated energy projects”.
The vast Moroccan power plants would be allied with 5GW/20GWh of battery storage in its southern Guelmim Oued Noun region.
This would be connected to the UK via four 3,800km high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cables to the county of Devon in England’s southwest.
Xlinks says it has reached an agreement with the UK’s National Grid for two 1.8GW connections to the grid.