Octopus Energy On Xlinks
Today, Octopus Energy published a web page, which is entitled Backing Cheaper, Greener Energy Globally, giving more details of the Xlinks project.
I first wrote about the tie-up between Octopus Energy and Xlinks in Xlinks Welcomes New Investor Octopus Energy In Providing Cheap Green Power To Over 7 Million Homes.
Points made in the page on the Octopus web page include.
- The project will cover over 570 square miles in Morocco with 7GW of solar and 3.5GW of wind generation alongside a 20GWh battery storage facility.
- This green energy powerhouse will be connected to the UK via 2,361 miles of HVDC subsea cables.
- The cables will be built with British steel in a new factory in Hunterton, Scotland.
- It also appears that the site of the project has been chosen to optimise energy collection.
This project appears to be excellently-thought out to bring large benefits to all stakeholders.
The Anonymous Widower 
I feel sick whenever I read anything about octopus energy – I lost £ks investing in them, totally irresponsible with my money.
Lawrence
Sent from my iPhone
Comment by lawrenceedwardwilsonhotmailcom | June 30, 2022 |
A friend of mine used to try to make sense of electricity networks in the 1970s. I decided from his tales, that investing in retail electricity companies was too risky. I’ve been with OVO ever since I read about their computing systems in a Sunday Times article.
Comment by AnonW | June 30, 2022 |
I think you meant to say that you’ve been with OVO ever since reading about their computing systems in a Sunday Times article back in 2009 when they were formed?
BTW OVO now seem to exist largely on the support of Mitsubishi who bought 20% of the equity following their announcement that they were going to cut the workforce by 25% back in January.
Comment by fammorris | June 30, 2022
the Hunterston factory has now got planning permission https://renews.biz/78866/scots-hvdc-cable-factory-gets-planning-nod/
Comment by Peter Robins | June 30, 2022 |
It’s a shame that BICC, once a significant UK cable manufacturer doesn’t exist to provide a domestically produced option, but I guess it went during the 1990s when manufacturing was being dismissed by the politics of the time.
Still BICC ended up being part of the Prysmian Group (I remember the originating company, Pirelli Cables). The Hunterston enterprise, it’s manufacturing facility and training schemes seems will now be supported by Prysmian and their NSW plant in Nordenham
https://www.nsw.com/en/
Comment by fammorris | June 30, 2022 |
I often go past their old site in Helsby. All that’s left is Callendar Way and Cable Drive. The name apparently survives in the former subsidiary in Egypt. Sic transit …
Prysmian seems to dominate the HVDC market.
Comment by Peter Robins | June 30, 2022
Michael Liebreich who is an investor in Xlinks interviewed CEO and founder Simon Morrish in last weeks Cleaning Up podcast/youtube video.
Comment by jason leahy | June 30, 2022 |
thanks for the link, Jason. That’s a very informative discussion by 2 people who clearly know what they’re talking about.
You ask about Icelink. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelink states that the Icelandic parliament is unlikely to approve it. Icelanders have similar concerns to the Norwegians.
Comment by Peter Robins | August 2, 2022 |
Xlinks has now also appointed a tendering advisor for the converter stations (4 of them) https://renews.biz/79562/wsp-lends-hand-on-morocco-uk-power-link/
I was sceptical about this project at first, but it does seem to be making good progress.
Comment by Peter Robins | August 2, 2022 |
I feel the same. But as you say it seems to be progressing.
There does seem to have been a lot of energy activity in the last three months.
I do wonder, that when Boris met Olav in April 2022, there was a lot of sorting out on the side. The Germans have a serious energy problem and we are the only country, who can really help them out, as we have plenty of energy close to Germany.
And they can invest, as they have done with BP to produce more energy in the UK, which will allow any UK surpluses to be transferred to Germany, through the new interconnector, which has just been given the go ahead.
I also wonder if National Grid are helping out the project indirectly. They obviously need some more HVDC cables for some of their proposed England-Scotland interconnectors. So have they given a nod and a wink they’ll order the cables from Hunterston. It would help in the funding of that project.
The Moroccan link will be 3.6 GW and Hinckley Point C with another 3.2 GW should come on stream in 2027.
We could be close to being able to stop electricity production using gas by 2028.
So the Germans could be able to buy a lot of our gas surplus.
Incidentally, I suspect Putin will still be in power.
Comment by AnonW | August 2, 2022 |
stop using gas by 2028? That seems optimistic! Current nuclear provides 5-6GW of ‘baseload’, depending on outages. I see Hinkley B closed yesterday, and the others are all scheduled to close over the coming years. So essentially, Xlinks and Hinkley C would just be replacing that. NGESO seem confident they can decarbonise the Grid by 2035, but that depends on a lot of demand management (about which the public are currently completely unaware).
Comment by Peter Robins | August 2, 2022 |
I will be doing a proper prediction on that, but I can see carbon capture having an effect at both Drax and Keadby.
Gas without carbon capture could be relegated to a role like coal has today.
I’ll see what the figures say.
Comment by AnonW | August 2, 2022 |
I’ve also just been looking at Xlinks’ website, which has improved considerably since I last looked. Amongst other things “Xlinks worked closely with National Grid to choose this location [Alverdiscott substn E of Bideford] as it will enable connection at the earliest possible date and the lowest cost”.
Comment by Peter Robins | August 2, 2022 |