More than ten years on from the death of ‘Desertec’, plans to link North Africa and its abundant renewables potential with energy-hungry Europe by high-capacity HVDC cables are picking up pace. Plans for a 220km, 600MW Tunisia-Sicily link are the most advanced but relatively modest (MEES, 10 November), whilst the 3,800km, 3.6GW ‘Xlinks’ project to link Morocco with UK is the most ambitious (MEES, 1 December).
There have long been plans on the drawing board to link Egypt with Europe. What is changing is that international power heavyweights are beginning to sign up, whilst for the first time there is evidence of joined-up thinking about where the massive amounts of green power required would be sourced. (CONTINUED - 1159 WORDS)
