UK backs away from renewable energy project to transport energy underwater from Morocco
CASABLANCA, Morocco (AP) — The United Kingdom has stepped back from a project to transmit power generated by North Africa's winds and sun via underwater cables and is pivoting to other projects seen as less risky, British energy officials said Thursday.
The country's Energy Security Department said in a statement that they would no longer support the $33 billion project due to a 'high level of inherent risk, related to both delivery and security.'
The Morocco-UK Power Project was announced by the British company Xlinks in 2021 as part of an effort to create a global energy grid and ship power from places where it's cheap to produce to high-demand markets. Xlinks said the project would provide an equivalent of 8% of Britain's current electricity needs, or roughly 7 million homes.
'There are stronger alternative options that we should focus our attention on,' British minister Michael Schanks said in a statement, noting the inherent risk for taxpayers and consumers.
The United Kingdom relies heavily on natural gas for its energy needs and aims to generate all of its energyfrom renewable sources by 2030. It closed its last coal-fired power plant last year and offered partial financing to a raft of wind, solar and energy storage projects to help meet its goal.
Such large-scale infrastructure projects typically rely on some governmental support or fixed prices per megawatt-hour. Xlinks was pursuing a fixed price agreement and has already received loans from investors including France's Total Energies and the development bank Africa Finance Corporation.
Xlinks Board Chair Dave Lewis said in a statement that the company would continue pursuing the project despite the government's decision.
'We are hugely surprised and bitterly disappointed,' he said, noting that the company believed its project would offer electricity at cheaper rates and more quickly than other proposals, including to expand nuclear power.
Xlinks is one of a slew of projects that reflect how European countries are looking south to North Africa for clean energy, testing whether it's cheaper to generate renewable power in ideal conditions far away and ship it, or to produce it domestically.
The project would transmit electricity through nearly 4,000 kilometers of underwater cables encased in protective plastic and steel, with minimal transmission loss. If completed, it would be the largest interconnector of its kind, though smaller subsea cable networks already link the UK to neighboring European countries.
In addition to Xlinks, transmission projects in Tunisia and Egypt aim to link solar and wind farms to Italy and Greece
Moroccan officials did not respond to questions about the decision.
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