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Xlinks starts debt financing work

3 July 2024

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UK-based startup Xlinks has commenced procurement and embarked on debt financing work following the appointment of two financial advisers in May.

“Xinks is moving forward at quite a pace now,” Paddy Padmanathan (pictured), vice-chairman and an investor in the company, told MEED.

Xlinks First, the investment company established by Xlinks to deliver the $18bn Morocco-UK power interconnector project, appointed US-based JP Morgan and France’s Societe Generale as lead financial advisers for its debt financing in May.

Xlinks 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.

In May, US-headquartered GE Vernova invested $10.2m in Xlinks First, which equates to a minority shareholding in the company.

GE Vernova joined at least four other investors in the project, including 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 TotalEnergies, $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 of energy a day to the UK via four 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.

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Jennifer Aguinaldo

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