The world of science keeps astonishing us. This recent collaboration between Morocco and the UK is one of the latest examples in this regard. According to reports, the Guelmim-Oued Noun region of Morocco has been chosen for a massive 10.5 GW wind and solar farm. The energy produced from this state of the art facility will be transferred to the UK through a twin 1.8 GW HVDC subsea cable system.
Who Will Manufacture These Cables & Where?
This cable will be manufactured by XLCC. The company specializes in producing subsea cables and is planning to set up its facility in Scotland. The factory will be used for manufacturing the 3,800 km cables for the world’s longest subsea cable system for the Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project.
The company aims to provide these cables between 2025 and 2027. The delay in production is self-explanatory as XLCC has to establish its factory in Scotland for this mega project.
The first phase of the project will connect Morocco with the North Devon region in the UK.
The project is momentous because it aims to double the world’s present HVDC manufacturing. However, for doing so, it requires more than 90,000 metric tons of steel.
Why Has Morocco Been Chosen?
Isn’t it surprising that for providing energy to the UK, a country from North Africa has been chosen? So what are the reasons that led to this decision?
Here are a few of the factors that aided Morocco in being the best option for this gargantuan project:
- Morocco has ideal climate conditions for wind and solar power generation;
- The energy can be generated throughout the year without any massive interruptions;
- Even the shortest winter days offer over 10 hours of sunshine;
- Morocco has North Africa’s 3rd highest Global Horizon Irradiance (GHI). This is twice that of the UK and nearly 20% more than that of Spain.
Will Morocco Have Enough Electricity To Power Its Own Population?
Morocco has a population of around 37 million which is almost half that of the UK i.e. 68 million.
However, the country is far less developed than the UK and thus has much lesser energy requirements.
Overall, just 1% of the energy produced by Morocco presently comes from renewable energy sources like wind and solar.
The country is predominantly dependent on fossil fuels for producing electricity. Thus, the present project will not affect the provision of electricity to Morocco’s own population.
Will Developed Countries Take Over The Resources Of Developing Countries?
As the world is now shifting over to the electric vehicle platform, the electricity demand will only increase in the future.
Under such circumstances, developed countries might have to rely on developing countries in the quest to meet their needs.
Renewable Energy Sources Are Imperishable
Renewable energy sources are imperishable and abundantly available. All you need is a plane area with long sunny days.
Furthermore, the dwellers of developing countries are not as interested in renewable energy as those of the developed countries, at least for now.
The reason is that they want access to uninterrupted electricity regardless of its source. Everyday life in most developing countries is already filled with power cuts. Thus such people are not much interested in going green.
However, in future, the focus will shift to renewable energy sources. The governments of such countries, by then, would have already leased major energy generation prospects to developed countries in return for money.
This will be the situation in which the developed countries will take over the resources of developing countries. However, we don’t see such a situation in the near future.
Comments