UK-Morocco 2,500-Mile Power Link Seeks Political Champions

(Bloomberg) -- The company planning the world’s longest subsea power cable between the UK and Morocco says the project needs political support to become a reality. 

Under the proposal, the Xlinks First Ltd. project would spur as much as £24 billion ($29.9 billion) of investment, with about £5 billion of that in the UK. The plea to unlock that spending comes as Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves try to revive the British economy and deliver growth.

Drawing on plentiful supplies of wind and sunshine, the link would provide the UK with a reliable source of green power that would compliment the country’s growing fleet of turbines in the North Sea, said Dave Lewis, Xlinks’s chairman and the former chief executive officer of the UK’s biggest grocer Tesco Plc. The company is aiming for a final investment decision this year, financial close in 2026 and to start building before the end of next year. 

“It offers enough stable, reliable and dedicated supply to power 7 million homes, or 8% of current electricity needs,” Lewis said in an interview. “It brings billions in inward investment. It helps reduce wholesale energy prices while cutting emissions. It also answers the Dunkelflaute challenge. All without the need for government investment. My view is: why wouldn’t you?”

What the company needs now is political backing. Xlinks is talking to the government to secure a contract to sell power at fixed prices. The company says it would need a power price that’s above that of UK offshore wind farms, but below the deal that nuclear power plant Hinkley Point C secured back in 2016.

The project will come online in 2031, crucially just after the UK’s 2030 deadline for a clean power grid. The cable’s timeline was disrupted by the general election last year and now there’s a new set of ministers in government to convince.

Xlinks would include some 11.5 gigawatts of solar and wind farm capacity, coupled with batteries to store excess power. It would then send the electricity along roughly 4,000 kilometers (2,485.5 miles) of subsea power cables along the coasts of Portugal, Spain and France before crossing the English channel and connecting to the British power grid in Devon in the southwest of England. 

Major energy companies have already backed the venture. GE Vernova Inc. invested $10.2 million in Xlinks last year, adding to a list of investors that includes France’s TotalEnergies SE, Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. and the UK’s biggest retail energy supplier, Octopus Energy. 

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