Xlinks’ Morocco-UK Power Project has received a multi-million pound investment from Germany-based energy industry partner and investor, con|energy.
The project, announced in September last year, is set to utilise wind and solar technology in Morocco to provide the UK a total capacity of 10.5GW, with a capability of exporting 3.6GW of renewable energy, equivalent to an average of 20 hours per day. This would be enough to power around 8% of the UK’s electricity requirements.
The electricity generated will be transported from a site in Morocco’s Guelmim Oued Noun region to the UK through four 3,800km HVDC subsea cables which, Xlinks states, will be the longest of their kind.
Xlink has highlighted a number of benefits that should arise once the project becomes operational by the end of this decade. These include using the Contracts for Difference scheme (CfD) to make the project a source of revenue delivering energy at £48/MWh and providing about 1,350 new UK green jobs by 2024.
Following the announcement Simon Morrish, CEO and founder of Xlink, said the company was looking forward to the opportunities brought by the partnership. Morrish added that con|energy’s investment “demonstrates the growing confidence the markets and our industry have in the project and the benefits it will bring.”
Echoing Morrish’s approval, founder and CEO of con|energy, Roman Dudenhausen said that additional joint projects “are already under discussion.”
The investment means Con|energy joins Octopus Energy Group as a partner, which entered in a financial and strategic partnership with Xlinks this summer.