Moving African Solar and Wind Energy to Europe via Undersea Cable

At least a half-dozen projects under consideration would transmit electricity from solar and wind installations in North Africa.

A rendering of Xlink's cable manufacturing facility in Scotland.

Todd Gillespie and

Eamon Akil Farhat

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For decades, North Africa has been a key supplier of fossil fuels to Europe, with oil and gas fields pumping millions of barrels a month that power cars and heat homes from Athens to Aberdeen. Now, as European energy companies seek to cut carbon emissions, they’re looking to the region for a new source of power: solar and wind farms that would ship electricity northward via undersea cables.

Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and even the more distant United Kingdom are looking for ways to tap renewable energy from the region's deserts. Since 1997, Spain's grid has been linked to Morocco's via a cable that crosses the Strait of Gibraltar, the only such connection currently in operation. But entrepreneurs and utilities across Europe are considering at least a half-dozen projects, ranging from an expansion of the Morocco-Spain cable to a 2,000-mile line departing from Morocco's Atlantic coast and traveling to southern England. "This project will be the first of many as the world realizes the enormous benefits of transmitting electric power long distances," says Simon Morrish, chief executive officer of Xlinks Ltd., the company planning the UK cable.