Meed | GE Vernova invests in Xlinks

GE Vernova invests in Xlinks

2 May 2024

US-headquartered GE Vernova has invested $10.2m in Xlinks First, the investment company established by UK-based startup Xlinks to deliver the $18bn Morocco-UK power project.

This investment equates to a minority shareholding in the company, which is developing a project comprising wind and solar generation as well as battery storage, with a total combined capacity of 3,600MW, to be transmitted from Morocco to the UK.

Xlinks said the investment will “further accelerate delivery and buildout of the project”.

GE Vernova joins at least four other investors in the project.

Other investors include Africa Finance Corporation, which invested $14.1m in April; Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa), $30.7m; the UK’s Octopus Energy, $6.23m; and France’s Total Energies, $25.4m.

The planned electricity generation and battery storage facilities, located in south Morocco, will be connected exclusively to the UK via 4,000-kilometre high-voltage, direct current (HVDC) cables.

In December last year, Xlinks signed a contract with Canada-headquartered WSP to provide technical advisory services for the project.

WSP will support Xlinks with route optimisation, power systems and interface management for the plan to construct the project.

The Morocco-UK power project entails building 10,500MW solar and wind farms in Morocco’s Guelmim-Oued Noun region and sending 3,600MW a day of energy exclusively to the UK via four 3,800-kilometre HVDC cables.

The HVDC network is envisaged to run from the UK’s south coast, passing France, Spain and Portugal undersea and then onshore to a planned solar and wind energy project in Morocco.

This renewable energy-sourced electricity amounts to nearly 8% of the UK’s current requirements, equivalent to powering 7 million homes by 2030.

https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/11734222/main5830.jpg

Jennifer Aguinaldo