UK-Morocco renewable energy link plan gets $10.2m boost
GE Vernova invested $10.2-million in Xlinks First, the UK company planning a massive renewable power project in Morocco and a 4 000 km undersea cable to deliver the energy to Britain.
The investment helped close the latest funding round for Xlinks First, capping $110-million raised to date, according to CEO James Humfrey. It’s an incremental step for the company as it advances a project it estimates will cost as much as £24-billion ($30.1-billion) to construct.
Xlinks’s planned power plant — consisting of wind turbines, solar panels and batteries — in Morocco is expected to bring 3.6 GW of electricity to the UK via the world’s longest subsea power cable. With a steadier supply of sunshine and wind in Morocco, the project can guarantee Britain reliable and cheap green power, especially during times when the UK’s own output dips.
GE Vernova joins a group of investors that includes France’s TotalEnergies, Abu Dhabi National Energy and the UK’s biggest retail energy supplier Octopus Energy.
The company is in talks with the government to grant it access to a support mechanism primarily used by offshore wind farms today. The project would need a strike price in the range of £70/MWh to £80/MWh in 2012 terms, according to Humfrey. That’s higher than UK onshore wind and solar, but below the £92.50/MWh guaranteed to the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.
Xlinks is still in the development stage and plans to use much of the money it’s raising to conduct detailed surveys along the route where it aims to lay its cable, Humfrey said.
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