Could The Morocco-UK Power Project Be Developed Into A Western Europe And Africa Interconnector?
This page on the Xlinks web site, describes the Morocco-UK Power Project, which is proposed to generate solar and wind power in Morocco and deliver it to the UK.
- The plan envisages 10.5 GW of electricity being generated.
- There will be a 5GW/20GWh battery in Morocco.
- They will export 3.6 GW of electricity to the UK for at least twenty hours per day.
- The electricity will be exported to the UK by an Interconnector that skirts to the West of Spain, Portugal and France.
- The interconnector will be 3,800 kilometres long.
I described the project in detail in Moroccan Solar-Plus-Wind To Be Linked To GB In ‘Ground-Breaking’ Xlinks Project.
This Google Map shows Western Europe And North Africa.
Note.
- The light blue of the Continental Shelf
- The darker blue of deeper water.
- The Southern end of the Morocco and the UK interconnector will at Guelmim Oued Noun in the South of Morocco, which is indicated by the red arrow.
- The UK end of the cable will be at Alverdiscott between Barnstaple and Bideford in North Devon.
- Southern Morocco and Algeria look to be mainly in the Sahara Desert.
If we look at the route of the cable, it connects a lot of possible renewable energy sources.
- Morocco – Solar and wind
- Spain – Solar and wind
- Portugal – Solar and wind
- France – Nuclear, tidal and wind
- UK – Nuclear and wind.
Could the UK and Morocco interconnector be developed into a bigger power project?
- Solar and wind power from Algeria could be added.
- Tidal power from a Severn Barrage could be added.
- Connections could be added to Gibraltar, the Irish Republic and Wales.
I believe that there could be a large amount of electricity developed on the Western costs of Europe and Africa.
An interconnector would move it to where it is needed.
The Anonymous Widower 
Wind is unpredictable blowing when you do not want it. So an idea is to have wind turbines one third more than needed. The surplus will be used to produce hydrogen, which will be used in peak times and to power trains.
When is this Moroccan scheme coming to fruition?
It is it worth it? Would the money be better used in wind and wave at home?
Comment by John | September 29, 2021 |
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Looking at that cable route it seems like they should have made it two cables one Devon to gib and a second gib to Morocco.
That way as you said you can get alternative suppliers of solar by making new cables from gib.
That said maybe making a subsea cable to gib is much harder and is more likely to be damaged.
Comment by James Philip | October 24, 2021 |
Since I wrote this, I’ve posted about SunCable’s link between Farwin and Singapore.
That is not too much different in length than Devon to Morocco. It sounds like someone has got the capability to make 4000 km HVDC power cables.
Could we see other long power cables like Libya and Italy and Iceland and Scotland.
Comment by AnonW | October 24, 2021 |
https://balkangreenenergynews.com/several-undersea-power-cables-about-to-connect-europe-with-africa/ from last September summarises the situation with interconnectors to/from Greece, and between Italy and Africa. The 3rd Spain-Morocco connector is part of Spain’s 2021-6 plan – which also includes a link with the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, currently powered by a fossil-fuel power plant (a Ceuta-Morocco would be more sensible, but Ceuta is a bone of contention between the 2 countries).
Comment by Peter Robins | June 10, 2022 |
more on the Spain-Morocco connector at https://www.med-tso.com/publications/ES-MA_project_sheet.pdf (AC not DC). It took me a while to work out where this particular Puerto de la Cruz is – some 20+km E of Trafalgar.
Comment by Peter Robins | June 10, 2022 |