UK could lose undersea cable to Germany

THE developer behind a flagship £16bn cable linking Moroccan solar and wind farms to British homes has threatened to instead send electricity to Germany.

The European transmission system operator’s website shows that Xlinks, the company behind the project, has floated Germany as another end destination for its proposed undersea cable.

That will push the UK Government to support the project, which could be critical for hitting net zero targets.

Xlinks is planning to build a vast solar and wind farm in Morocco with batteries. The project is forecast to provide enough power for 7m British families.

It would send power through 3,800km subsea cables along the west coast of Iberia and France, crossing the Channel and coming ashore in Devon.

However, Xlinks is now “looking at options” including Germany, according to chief executive Simon Morrish. He said: “Everything is a possibility.” Xlinks could supply both countries with power, only connect to the UK or opt for Germany alone, although this is still an unlikely outcome.

The project is a private venture set up in 2019 and based in Essex. Xlinks was founded by serial entrepreneur Simon Morrish and its chairman is former Tesco chief executive Sir Dave Lewis.

The scheme, still at planning stage, has attracted millions of pounds of investment from companies including Octopus Energy, Abu Dhabi National Energy and France’s Totalenergies.

Xlinks has said it was in discussions about government backing. The project has been declared of “national significance” by Claire Coutinho, the Energy Secretary, who has set a team of civil servants to work on it.

The scheme aims to overcome the challenge of what to do when the sun is not shining and the wind not blowing.

Wind and solar farms in Morocco would experience near-constant sunshine during the day and strong winds during afternoons and evenings.

Xlinks is preparing to commission the world’s biggest cable-laying ship, a 700ft vessel that will lay four parallel cables to link solar and wind farms in Morocco to Europe. The plan is to connect to a substation in Alverdiscott, a village near the north Devon coast.

The scheme is predicted to deliver 3.6 gigawatts of electricity to the National Grid, 8pc of all demand.

This is slightly more than Hinkley Point C is expected to generate.