Emirati energy giant TAQA joins Xlinks venture, as Morocco-UK project secures £25m in funding

Developers of the Xlinks project have successfully raised £30 million to fund the new development cycle of the Morocco-UK power interconnection project.

In a statement, the London-based startup announced that it had secured £25 million in funding from Abu Dhabi’s national energy company TAQA, one of the largest listed integrated utility companies in the Middle East and North Africa region.

A second round of financing, in the amount of £5 million, was able to be raised from UK-based Octopus Energy Group.

“With their investment, TAQA and Octopus validate Xlinks’ plans to lay the world’s longest high voltage direct current (HVDC) submarine cable between the UK and Morocco, crossing Portugal, Spain and France,” says the statement.

Xlinks will provide the UK with 3.6 GW of renewable electricity, or nearly 8% of the country’s needs, to power seven million British homes by the end of the decade.

The UK government has set up a dedicated team to work with Xlinks to examine the benefits of the project and understand how it could contribute to the UK’s energy security, the statement said.

The electricity will be generated in the Guelmim Oued Noun region of Morocco by a 10.5 GW facility of solar and wind farms, backed by 20 GWh/5 GW of battery storage.

The facility will be connected to the UK power grid in Devon, southwest England, via four 3,800 km subsea HVDC cables, which will be manufactured in the UK.

The project is expected to create around 10,000 jobs in Morocco during construction and bring significant foreign direct investment to the country.

“With this investment and the support of our partners TAQA and Octopus, as well as the support of the UK and Moroccan governments, we are taking another step towards the realization of this ambitious project,” said Xlinks CEO Simon Morrish.

“We are already working on a large-scale HVDC subsea project in Abu Dhabi, and we have one of the largest solar PV plants in the world. This investment offers the opportunity to bring both our infrastructure and renewable energy expertise to the UK and Morocco,” said Jasim Husain Thabet, CEO of TAQA Group.