Will Sahara solar save the UK?
Conversations about the energy crisis in the UK and increasing pressure on the government to help households with escalating living costs have been a hot topic in recent weeks and months.
From community schemes to green technology and sustainable solutions, many people are trying to find the silver bullet to lower household bills and restore stability to the nation’s energy supply.
A potential answer, however, is coming from an unlikely source on the other side of the world — the Sahara desert.
Saharan solutions
As the Telegraph reported in late April 2022, plans to create the world’s longest undersea cable network, linking Devon to a vast territory of solar panels in the Sahara desert are increasingly likely to materialise ‘within five years’.
Four cables, each 3.8km in length, would be funnelled under the sea from Morocco and provide the UK with up to 3.6GW of renewable energy generated by a enormous solar power field in the Sahara desert.
The solar farm is in Morocco’s Guelmim Oued Noun region, and the journey back to mainland UK would require the installation of the longest ever high voltage (HV) direct cables in what will be a groundbreaking technological advancement.
This innovative project proposed by UK renewable energy company ‘Xlinks’ is rumoured to be worth an eye-watering $22bn.
Xlinks stated that the exciting Morocco — UK project (currently gaining green-light approval) could generate clean, renewable energy for an average of a staggering 20+ hours a day and enough to provide low-cost, clean power to over 7 million British homes.
Project stages
Xlinks CEO Simon Parrish released a first statement on the development of the project in September 2021, highlighting four key aspects that come together to ‘capture and connect the power of nature’.
- Generating solar power
Morocco would generate 10.5GW of clean power from large scale solar and wind facilities, providing ultra low-cost zero-carbon electricity, along with a 20 GWh/5GW battery storage.
- Connecting the UK and Morocco
The HVDC interconnector technology would be funnelled on a 3.8km route under the seabed, providing a dedicated source of solar energy exclusively to the UK. This would secure Britain’s energy supply by diversifying from EU interconnected and LNG dependence.
- Transmitting power to UK homes
National Grid has already agreed for two 1.8GW connectors to be in Devon. From these, the aim is to transmit power to 7 million UK homes before the end of the decade.
- Creating “green” jobs
Xlinks is looking to build a new export-led cable manufacturing industry in the UK, creating no less than 1,350 new permanent regional jobs by 2024. and the goal is for the construction of the UK based factories to begin by 2025. In addition to this, thousands more roles will be created in the supply chain, along with 10,000 brand new jobs in Africa.
Stats via: Xlinks publication
A domestic and Saharan solar partnership
With Britain’s goal for a zero-carbon electricity system by 2035, the project couldn’t have launched at a better time!
The aim is to complete the project by 2029, so not only would this be a huge step in increasing the supply of renewable energy to the UK, but it would also provide part of a wider solution to the energy crisis.
“Working in tandem with domestic renewables, it makes a reliable, net-zero electricity system by 2035 much more possible in Britain”, stated Sir David Lewis, former TESCO CEO and executive chair of Xlinks.
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
