The project will link solar and wind farms spread across the desert in Morocco - Fadel Senna/AFPA project to power Britain using solar farms thousands of miles away in the Sahara is moving a step closer to fruition as its backers prepare to commission the world’s biggest cable-laying ship. The 700 ft vessel will lay four parallel cables linking solar and wind farms spread across the desert in Morocco with a substation in Alverdiscott, a tiny village near the coast of north Devon. There, they will connect with seven solar farms and up to 1,000 wind turbines built across an area of Moroccan desert roughly the size of greater London. Simon Morrish, co-founder of the Xlinks project and group chief executive, said the aim was to overcome the intermittency of UK wind and solar. However the wind and solar farms in North Africa would be experiencing very different weather, of near-constant sunshine during the day and strong winds during afternoons and evening.

Source: The North Africa Journal February 26, 2024 12:42 UTC