The UK has been given an urgent warning as Germany could pinch a £16 billion mega project from under its nose. Developer Xlinks has threatened to send electricity from its cable linking Moroccan wind and solar farms to Europe to Germany instead of Britain as it had planned.
The move will ramp up pressure on the British government as the link could prove critical to the UK hitting its net zero targets.
It is thought the new project would be able to power seven million homes in the UK when Xlinks vast battery-equipped wind and solar farm is built.
Power will travel along 3,800km subsea cables past the west coast of Iberia and France before reaching the UK in Devon.
But now the Xlinks CEO Simon Morrish says he is “looking at options” to take the farm to other countries, telling Bloomberg “everything is a possibility”.
Xlinks has previously said it was in discussions with the UK government, with energy secretary Clare Coutinho declaring the project “of national significance” and setting up a team of civil servants to work on it.
The scheme would allow Britain to overcome its biggest challenge of how to get renewable energy on days when the sun is not shining, with Morocco seeing near-constant sun and strong winds in the afternoon and evening, during periods when the UK is not.
Once completed it is hoped the project will provide 8% of British energy to the national grid, more than the electricity expected to be produced by Hinkley Point C.
But a spokesman for Xlinks has said the UK remains the project’s priority location.
He told the Telegraph: “Xlinks was founded in order to promote the development of long-distance energy projects, with the Morocco – UK Power Project as primary target and priority for the group.
“We remain committed to delivering the Morocco – UK Power Project as our recent appointment of James Humfrey as CEO for Xlinks First Ltd to lead this project clearly demonstrates.”
The company is preparing to commission the world’s biggest cable-laying ship, a 700 ft vessel that will lay four parallel cables to connect the farm to Europe.
