Morocco-UK HVDC solar PV interconnection

[Joeboy]

Well well well, Octopus is part of the investment mix for the Morocco-UK solar project

https://www.cityam.com/octopus-backs-pl ... nks_launch

Imagine if an investment icon showed up on our Octopus account page! If this baby flies (i think it will) it's an investment to leave for the grandkids to also benefit from.

[Mr Gus]

Lads, excuse any idiocy within this well meant question..

Bearing in mind global instability & Russia's history of cutting undersea cables that they were in the area of, how prone to damage & power loss by monetised, military dickheads does a project like this pose, especially hearing in mind Putin's desire to control energy & prices that go with it?

(Be it Putin or anyone else, with intent to do big damage & throttle back clean power)

[AE-NMidlands]

Lads, excuse any idiocy within this well meant question..

Bearing in mind global instability & Russia's history of cutting undersea cables that they were in the area of, how prone to damage & power loss by monetised, military dickheads does a project like this pose, especially hearing in mind Putin's desire to control energy & prices that go with it?

(Be it Putin or anyone else, with intent to do big damage & throttle back clean power)

Perfecty sensible question... See post #20! I could believe that shipping a surrogate for power (like ammonia) would be more secure: an attack on a surface vessel can't be disguised, whereas the cause of a sudden failure of a cable at depth could only be deduced after forensic investigation of salveged cabe ends.

[Ken]

This idea reminds me of Germany tieing its gas supply to Russia.

If i was Morocco i would want to value add to produce Ammonia to sell to the highest bidder.

[Mr Gus]

Presumably with all this power & infrastructure a giant solar powered desalination plant is planned nearby as a sweetener to enrich the local environment and make for useful cultivated land growth?

If so, with this talk of chemical production within the thread, is there any use for brine salt, rather than pumping it back in the sea!? (which always seems stupid)

If there is not this sort of improvement to Moroccan infrastructure then likely anzty man on the street a few years in & more uncertainty rather than energy security.

[dan_b]

This project seems to be steaming ahead.
Planning permission granted for the cable factory in Scotland

https://www.offshore-energy.biz/uks-fir ... -approval/

[Mart]

And if it can be delivered at the claimed £48/MWh (I'm assuming 2012 baseline), then that's equivalent to the solar CfD's just issued (£46), but 3.6GW of constant supply with storage included, and 2027(ish)?

I appreciate it will supply less at night, from wind and storage, but still, that's getting on for 10% of our current demand. The instantaneous impact that would have on our energy mix (well two impacts of 1.8GW each), is hard to comprehend.

Can't do the maths quickly, but let's say 3GW supply on average, would be equal to the output of about 27GWp of UK PV ..... might have 'ocked' that up?

[AE-NMidlands]

An update: https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... nergy-link

£18bn project to link UK to huge wind and solar farm in Sahara delayed by a year
Exclusive: Dave Lewis, chair of startup hoping to provide 8% of Britain’s energy, tells how political turmoil has delayed undersea cable project
An £18bn project to connect Britain with a huge wind and solar farm in the Sahara through an undersea cable has been delayed by at least a year because of political ructions in Westminster.

The energy startup Xlinks hopes to provide 8% of Britain’s electricity supplies through a 3,800km (2,360-mile) cable linking Morocco with the UK, powering 7m homes by 2030.

The project had been expected to begin generating power by 2027. However, that target date now appears unlikely.

The Xlinks’ executive chair, Sir Dave Lewis, a former chief executive of Tesco, warned that the recent political turmoil that has seen off three prime ministers in less than six months has stalled its progress.

He has been trying to secure a government “contract for difference” – a mechanism under which public subsidies are used to offer low-carbon generators, such as windfarms, a fixed price for power. The arrangement aims to encourage investment by making revenues more predictable.
Lewis told the Guardian: “We spent a long time with the then business secretary [Kwasi Kwarteng] who said: ‘We like it a lot but it needs to go through Treasury.’ There was a review with Treasury, Cabinet Office and the business department, which was very positive.

“Then we came back to them to start the detail and the political world exploded and, as a result, everything stopped. And everybody has changed, so it’s sort of like you’re starting again.

“Time is important for the UK to meet its net zero ambitions, to secure energy supplies and to reduce bills. We have lost a year.”
...