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A raft of ambitious interconnection projects has been announced to bring African electrons to European shores. While there are financial and supply chain challenges to overcome, the renewables potential on offer across North Africa is exciting investors.
Interconnectors will play a more prominent role in European electricity in the 2030s, writes Matthew Lynas. Plans are afoot to increase links between European nations and there are ambitious hopes for intercontinental connections.
North Africa offers solar irradiance in abundance. Mediterranean African nations, in the “solar belt,” boast a generation profile less intermittent than Europe’s. Investors see potential. Analysis from Rystad Energy found proposed North Africa-to-Europe interconnectors could transfer energy from 24 GW of generation capacity. It looks unlikely that all of these will materialize.
Interconnectors linking Africa and Europe are not a new idea. There are currently two high-voltage cables linking Morocco with Spain, each with 700 MW of transmission capacity. A third cable linking the two nations is in development and there are much longer planned connections attracting financial backing.
Nivedh Das Thaikoottathil, senior analyst for renewables and power at Rystad Energy, highlighted three major projects: Xlinks, connecting the United Kingdom and Morocco; the GREGY initiative between Greece and Egypt; and Elmed joining Tunisia and Italy.
“The reason I say these interconnectors stand out from the rest is in terms of project developments and financing,” Thaikoottathil told pv magazine. “If we look at Xlinks, the project is estimated to cost around $27 billion to $30 billion but they’ve been able to raise a bit of investment, I think $110 million, and the majority of this will go into surveying along the planned route of the cable,” he said.
Project developers may have made progress on finance, but it will take more than money to link North Africa with Europe. Thaikoottathil warned that, at present, global supply for high-voltage and extra-high voltage subsea cable sits at around 9,000 km per year. That will not be enough. Going by the announced manufacturing capacity in development, that could hit 16,000 km per year by 2030, however, Rystad Energy projects demand could be as high as 75,000 km by then.
It is a big challenge but, if overcome, then there’s significant potential for interconnectors to add further diversity to European grids in the 2030s, reducing dependency on gas imports in the process.
“If you include Xlinks, GREGY, and Elmed-Tunita, basically the total adds up to 7.2 GW [of capacity],” said Thaikoottathil. “This would essentially translate to over 50 TWh being exported to Europe (annually). That is assuming these interconnectors operate at maximum capacity. In terms of diversification, it’s a starting point because most of these countries – that is UK, Greece, and Italy – which are receiving this power, they have gas making up at least one third of their power mix.”
Morocco to United Kingdom
Morocco was the only African nation with interconnectors running to Europe in 2024. Two connections with Spain are in operation, with a third on the way, and an ambitious project with credible investors has proposed a record-breaking link with Northern Europe.
Xlinks would be the world’s largest interconnector, if it comes to fruition. The plan is to run 4,000 km of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cable from Morocco to the United Kingdom, exploiting the former’s abundant renewables potential. Progress has been made. Xlinks has agreed grid connections for two 1.8 GW interconnectors with Britain’s electricity system operator. In Morocco, Xlinks plans 7 GW of solar and 4.5 GW of wind capacity alongside a 22.5 GWh battery, according to Rystad Energy.
The project has attracted investors. In 2023, French utility Total Energies invested GBP 20 million ($26 million) and Octopus Energy and the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company are on board.
Dave Lewis, former boss of UK supermarket giant Tesco, chairs the project. Other key figures include vice chair Paddy Padmanathan, former president and CEO of Arabian developer ACWA Power, and CEO Simon Morrish.
Energization is a long way off, but Xlinks has taken steps toward planning approval. The project will require a development consent order (DCO) from the UK government for approximately 370 km of HVDC cables that would be laid within UK waters, as well as the final 14 km of onshore cabling connecting Moroccan renewables with the Alverdiscott, 400 kV substation in Devon, England. Xlinks was expected to submit its DCO application in November 2024, as pv magazine went to press. Should the UK government accept the application, a lengthy examination period will follow.
If planning consent is secured, other obstacles remain. Sourcing enough cable could pose challenges. To combat this, the project developer has set up a separate company, XLCC, tasked with establishing an HVDC subsea cable manufacturing plant. XLCC secured planning consent in 2022 from North Ayrshire Council, Scotland, to build a cable factory at a former coal and iron port located a stone’s throw from the Hunterston B nuclear power station, which stopped generating electricity in 2022.
The XLCC cable plant has also secured state backing. On Sept. 26, 2024, the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) announced a funding package comprising a GBP 20 million investment, with an option to invest a further GBP 67 million should XLCC achieve specific development and funding milestones.
In a statement, John Flint, chief executive of the UKIB, noted that industry projections indicate demand for subsea cables will soon exceed supply chain capacity.
“Our support for XLCC is intended to provide confidence to the market, crowding private investment into this sector to boost production capacity in an industry set to have a significant impact on the UK’s transition to net zero,” said Flint.
Tunisia to Italy
A long-planned link between North Africa and Italy continues to generate discussion, with industry stakeholders on both sides of the Mediterranean keen to see the Elmed interconnector project succeed. Big statements have been backed by big money and those involved hope to see commissioning as early as 2028.
The Elmed project has been in the works for years and it has secured significant state backing in that time, writes Blathnaid ODea. It involves running a 220 km undersea HVDC cable with 600 MW of capacity between Tunisia and Sicily, linking the Tunisian peninsula of Cape Bon with the southern coast of Italy’s largest island.
Project developers aim to complete the interconnector by 2028, although it’s unclear how Tunisia’s 2024 election, which has caused political and economic disruption, will affect the timeline. The European Investment Bank (EIB), a major backer of the project, doubled down on the 2028 deadline in a statement to pv magazine. The bank also stated the project is still in the bidding phase and procurement is being undertaken via a negotiated procedure under Italian law. Information such as the date the bid was submitted is confidential under this type of procedure.
Despite its challenges, Tunisia’s government and its transmission system operator (TSO) STEG both seem determined to get Elmed up and running.
The Italian TSO Terna is similarly motivated and has pledged to provide training support for Tunisians on the new technologies Elmed will bring to the region.
There is a lot riding on this interconnector project. In 2017, Elmed was included on the European Union’s list of common interest projects and a €307 million ($334 million) funding boost followed in 2022 via the Connecting Europe Fund (CEF). This makes Tunisia one of the first non-EU member states to receive CEF money. In total, almost €1 billion has been pumped into developing Elmed.
For the European Union, the interconnector adds to the diversity of a grid that policymakers would like to see reduce its reliance on gas imports. In Tunisia, the project is part of a wider energy collaboration with the European Union with renewable generation and green hydrogen at its heart.
In June 2024, Belhassen Chiboub, director general of electricity and the energy transition at Tunisia’s Ministry of Industry, Energy, and Mines, described the Elmed project as “strategic” for international relationships. The European Union and Tunisia have signed a memorandum of understanding to “strengthen cooperation in renewable energy.”
Egypt to Greece, via Cyprus
Egypt and Greece may be separated by the sea but the islands between make for attractive interconnection options. Multiple projects have been proposed to connect the two countries but in 2024, fortunes have been mixed, in terms of progress.
First announced in 2017, the EuroAfrica Interconnector is a planned 2 GW, 1,400 km stretch of undersea cables running from Egypt to Cyprus and then from Cyprus to Crete, writes Mark Hutchins. A cable connecting Crete to the Greek mainland was completed in 2021, which is also set for expansion to manage the added capacities of the EuroAfrica and Great Sea interconnectors between Crete and Cyprus.
The first stage of the interconnector, half of the planned total capacity, was originally set for completion by 2023, but the company behind the project has pushed the date back to 2029. The first stage has a reported investment cost of €2.5 billion and its current financial situation is not clear.
Reports from 2023 suggest that the project is undergoing new feasibility studies following a financial crisis and currency devaluation in Egypt. Multiple requests to the company behind EuroAfrica Interconnector for an update on the project have gone unanswered.
Cyprus is currently the only EU member state without an interconnection to other EU electricity networks and is still heavily reliant on fossil fuels for electricity. For the European Union, integrating Cyprus and bringing down both emissions and energy bills on the island are among the project’s key goals.
For Egypt, the EuroAfrica interconnector is part of a strategy to position the country as a regional energy hub as well as taking advantage of its abundant sunshine by supplying energy to Europe from large PV projects built in its vast deserts. Neighboring Saudi Arabia is also looking to get in on the act. The Middle Eastern country already has a 3 GW cable connecting it to the Egyptian grid under construction and feasibility studies underway for a direct cable connecting the Greek and Saudi Arabian grids.
Meanwhile, the GREGY project continues to develop. It proposes a 3 GW, 950 km interconnection between Greece and Egypt on a route that rounds the west coast of Crete. In fall 2023, the project was included on the European Union’s draft list of “projects of mutual interest” and, in early 2024, consultations to inform final studies were launched.
Project developer Copelouzos Group has claimed the interconnector will be supplied by renewable plants it will build and operate in Egypt, with generation capacity totaling 9.5 GW. |
