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The UK government rejects the £24 billion project, bringing solar and wind power from the Sahara to the UK via the world’s longest undersea cable, and concludes that there are too many “holes.”
Supporters of the Morocco-KUK Power Project, developed by Xlinks, believed that enough electricity could be brought from Morocco to supply homes for over 7 million people.
However, the minister said Thursday that executive chairman of Tesco’s former CEO, Sir Dave Lewis, would not provide financial support to the project. Investors in the scheme include Totalenergies, French energy giants and UK octopus energy.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband concluded that the project was “not stacked and too many ‘holes’. The decision, communicated through the Minister’s statement, was first reported by Sky News.
Xlinks is considering other commercial options to develop the project, including selling its electricity to large companies, according to people familiar with the issue.
The previous conservative government encouraged the project and agreed in 2023 to declare it “national importance.”
Under the plan, electricity from the Yed oued noun region in Germim, southern Morocco, would have been provided via cables running 3,800km under the sea.
It has a power generation capacity of 10.5 gigawatts, of which 7GW will come from the sun and 3.5GW from the wind.
The previous government believed that the project “can play a key role in enabling an energy system that meets the UK’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions and an energy system that meets the government’s objectives of creating a safe, reliable and affordable energy supply for consumers.”
Xlinks was negotiating with the government to secure a guaranteed fixed electricity price known as the “contract of differences.” Such contracts are widely used to support renewable energy projects in the UK and will help pull off the offshore wind industry from the ground.
Xlinks had proposed a fixed electricity price of £70 for 2012 and £80 per MWH. This is higher than the current UK late electricity price, but lower than the fixed price awarded to the Hinkley Point C nuclear power project.
Miliband’s energy division said Thursday that the government decided not to enter into sophisticated negotiations with the project. Instead, the minister would like to focus on his country’s sources of renewable electricity.
Industry experts warned that the scheme also faces practical challenges ranging from the length and depth that cable and transport electricity must be laid and transported, and potential bureaucratic hurdles, as it must intersect from the potential bureaucratic hurdles.
Energy Security and Net Zero and Xlinks departments declined to comment.
