In just a few years, solar power produced in Morocco is expected to lead Great Britain to climate neutrality. That's why the XLinks project was launched which involves the construction of solar and wind power plants on an area of 1,500 square kilometers in the Guelmim-Oued Noun region of Morocco with a total capacity of 10.5 gigawatts. In order to bring the produced electricity to Great Britain, four submarine cables will be laid along the European mainland over a total distance of 3,800 kilometers.
Sahara electricity – safe for the island
The world's longest submarine cables will soon supply solar power from Morocco to the UK, and electricity will be able to flow reliably through these mammoth cables thanks to testing technology from HIGHVOLT.
Sahara electricity – safe for the island
The world's longest submarine cables will soon supply solar power from Morocco to the UK, and electricity will be able to flow reliably through these mammoth cables thanks to testing technology from HIGHVOLT.
HVDC cable on a long journey
HVDC cable on a long journey
The company XLCC was founded in Hunterston, Scotland specifically for this major project. It will manufacture the submarine HVDC cables with aluminum conductors and insulation made of crosslinked polyethylene (XLPE), and will also be responsible for laying them. In the future, the specialists at XLCC will manufacture cable lengths of 20 kilometers in one piece and then connect these into section lengths of up to 160 kilometers by means of joints. Once connected in this way, the cables will then be transported to the corresponding laying ships. In all regards, the quality requirements are enormous since laying the cables under water makes subsequent repairs virtually impossible.
10.5 GW
of electricity will be generated by the wind and solar farms in Morocco.
1500 km²
is the area to be used for solar and wind energy plants in the Guelmim-Oued Noun region.
3800 km
is the total length of the submarine cables.
160 km
is the maximum length of the individual cable sections that need to be tested.
7 mio.
British households will be supplied with electricity in this way.
400 %
more power at just twice the size.
Testing of 100 km long submarine cables
HIGHVOLT was entrusted with the task of building a testing system for checking the cables for defects in the insulation or connecting joints. Anne Cholawa, project manager at HIGHVOLT who is responsible for this largest order in the company's history to date, explains: "The longer the cable system is, the higher the performance of the testing system has to be."
Read more about the test facility's progress in ONLOAD 11
