Two new partners have joined the electrical interconnection megaproject that will link Morocco with the United Kingdom.
The North American company GE Vernova has decided to invest $10.2 million in the project and become a minority shareholder to further accelerate the delivery and development of the project.
Likewise, a few days before, Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) invested about $14.1 million in Xlinks, the company that runs the project.
Once completed, the project’s wind and solar generation, combined with flexible battery storage, will supply 3.6 GW of clean, reliable and affordable energy to meet 8% of Britain’s current electricity needs, or the equivalent of 7 million homes.
The new electricity generation and battery storage facilities, located in southern Morocco, will be connected exclusively to Great Britain via 4,000 kilometer HVDC submarine cables.
In this way, GE Vernova and AFC join Octopus Energy or TAQA as minority shareholders who have trusted in this project.
Increase in costs
It is striking that these two movements occur just after knowing that the project is going to increase in cost by several billion. The estimated construction cost of the project ranges between £22-24 billion.
The company explained that the impact of global events on the supply chain accounts for around 60% of the change, driven by a multitude of factors, including market-wide increases in raw material and energy costs; while around 40% of the change is related to direct macroeconomic effects, with interest rates being responsible for the vast majority of this change.
Even so, the company maintains the project unchanged, will continue with it and hopes that more partners will join.
