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APEM Group is delighted to support the Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project, an ambitious project that will see 4,000 km of sub-sea cable laid between a solar and wind energy generating centre in the Guelmim-Oued Noun region of Morocco, passing Spain, Portugal and France, before connecting to a grid connection in Devon, England. APEM Group is leading on all UK marine permitting and environmental support and, as part of a wider consulting team, will provide technical expertise to the other jurisdiction assessments.
A large-scale and multi-jurisdictional project, the Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project will provide a near-constant supply of low-cost, clean power that is estimated to fulfil 8% of Great Britain’s electricity needs within a decade.
Xlinks is an innovative and bold scheme, not least because of the scale and ambition of the project, and the right resource and expertise is fundamental to the success of the project’s pre-planning design and environmental assessments.
Placed in pairs, the 4 HVDC power cables will be buried along the entire 370 km route in UK waters, which requires consideration of numerous potential environmental impacts and multi-disciplinary assessments to ensure protection of sensitive marine habitats, species, other marine users and marine processes.
The project involves specialists from across the APEM Group. Building on decades of marine and consenting experience, experts in several offshore disciplines and technical areas are actively contributing, from marine fish, ornithology and marine mammal teams to benthic ecology and marine biolabs. The UK offshore core delivery team is formed of experts from APEM Group’s Marine Infrastructure Services and Environmental Appraisal teams, who bring a wealth of offshore consenting and large infrastructure EIA coordination experience. The core APEM team are further coordinating technical inputs from partner organisations delivering technical aspects such as marine archaeology and cultural heritage.
The UK Government has recognized the Morocco-UK Power Project as a nationally significant project, and will be signed off by the Secretary of State. This status drives the processes for environmental and legal assessment, and the timescales for consenting, with the UK assessments ongoing through 2024.
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Xlinks is truly a one-of-a-kind renewable infrastructure project. The project’s importance to the UK’s transition to a sustainable energy future is highly significant.
Working with project stakeholders to assess and mitigate the impact on the natural environment of a project of this size and complexity draws upon the breadth and depth of our expertise and capabilities in APEM Group.
This is a fantastic example of where collaboration across the APEM Group, bringing together our consenting teams, ecologists, benthic analysts and others, is providing ecological and technical leadership for project consenting.
We continue to work with the Xlinks project team to deliver a successful outcome for the Morocco-UK Power Projects and our shared environment, and we’re really proud to be involved in getting clean power to Great Britain.
Darroch Baker, Managing Director, Water and Land Environmental Services, APEM Group
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We are delighted to have APEM support us with our UK offshore consents. Their proven track record and collaborative approach in understanding the project’s challenges and then working with us and stakeholders to identify practical technical and environmental solutions to potential impacts from the project activities aligns well with Xlinks’ responsible neighbour philosophy.
Diane Green, Xlinks Offshore Consents lead
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For more information about the project, get in touch with us. You can also read more about our work with the renewables industry here.
About APEM Group
With locations across the globe, APEM Group provide independent environmental consultancy and expert scientific advice to a wide range of industries including water, renewables, infrastructure, power and utilities, ports and harbours as well as to regulators and governments around the world.
We provide a range of services to clients including our world leading digital aerial wildlife surveys, environmental impact assessments and approvals, marine, water & terrestrial ecology, geospatial insights, shipping and navigational risk assessments, heritage advice and landscape visualisation.
About Xlinks
The Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project will be a new electricity generation facility entirely powered by solar and wind energy combined with a battery storage facility. Located in Morocco’s renewable energy rich region of Guelmim-Oued Noun, it will be connected exclusively to Great Britain via 3,800km HVDC sub-sea cables.
This “one of a kind” project will deliver 3.6 GW of reliable energy for an average of 20+ hours a day. This is enough to provide low-cost, clean power to over 7 million British homes and once complete, the project will be capable of supplying 8 percent of Great Britain’s electricity needs.
For more information about the project, visit www.xlinks.co
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