TotalEnergies has invested £20 million to acquire a minority stake in Xlinks First Limited, a company founded in 2019 in the UK, joining fellow investors Octopus Energy and Abu Dhabi National Energy Company.
Xlinks plans to develop a giant renewable project in Morocco (combining solar and wind) to supply green electricity to the UK through the installation of high-voltage direct current (HDVC) subsea cables, coupled with a large battery energy storage. Upon completion, the project is expected to deliver enough renewable, reliable and affordable electricity to power over 7 million British homes.
Simon Morrish, CEO of Xlinks, said: “We are excited to welcome Europe’s largest energy company to be a part of our ambitious vision to foster long distance power exchanges through this iconic partnership with the UK and Morocco. TotalEnergies’ investment goes far beyond capital, providing a rare combination of expertise in areas that meet the unique challenges we face. This marks a highly successful end to 2023 and will give us an even greater impetus to achieve our goals as we enter 2024.”
Vincent Stoquart, SVP Renewables at TotalEnergies, said: “We are delighted to join the Xlinks project and its other investors to support the development of such a pioneering and ambitious endeavour. This innovative project will benefit from our track record in developing large and complex integrated energy projects.”
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Energy Global's Autumn 2023 issue
The Autumn 2023 issue of Energy Global hosts an array of technical articles focusing on green hydrogen, wind installation technology, blade monitoring solutions, and more. This issue also features a regional report looking at some key renewables projects in Australia.