Industry and Trade Minister Ryad Mezzour has announced that Morocco will start supplying the UK with 8% of its total electricity needs from low-cost renewable energy sources produced in Morocco.
Ryad Mezzour spoke about the mega energy project which links Morocco to Great Britain and which should make it possible to transport clean electricity to the United Kingdom through submarine cables over 3/800 km long.
This project, called X-Links, has the participation of the Saudi company ACWA Power, the developer and operator of power generation and desalinated water production plants.
In an interview granted to the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, on the sidelines of a visit to London, the Minister explained that “Morocco is today a base that many European countries, particularly the United Kingdom, which consider it a potential source of electricity supply.
“We have a huge project that we are working on with private sector developers, and we are discussing it at government level,” he said, noting that the project aims to supply around 8% of the electricity in the UK. United from Moroccan production.
In other words, this 8% of electricity will be able to supply nearly 7 million British households with electricity at low cost and with low ecological impact, by 2030.
The two Kingdoms “experience a very positive dynamic, and the British and Moroccan governments are fully committed to promoting this cooperation”, particularly economic. For example, since Brexit, trade between Rabat and London has increased by more than 130%.
And the minister explained that the two countries have a flagship product developed by the British government to support the integration of Moroccan and British industries. It is “an export guarantee of 4 billion pounds, in support of the investment of any company that produces in Morocco and includes 20% of the British contribution. »
“This integration is strongly supported by both parties. In addition to the Moroccan support mechanisms, it allows the development of exceptional investment opportunities,” said Mezzour.
As for the Moroccan energy potential, Morocco does not have large stocks of hydrocarbons, further indicated the minister, who considered that the Kingdom has sought other ways of having an energy potential, by bringing its competitive advantage to renewable energies.
Morocco is committed to an energy mix to produce electricity, and aims to “produce 52% of our electricity from renewable sources by 2030”, i.e. in less than 10 years, the minister said, noting that “good progress has been made towards this objective”, according to him, this percentage is currently 35%.
“Today we have become one of the top three countries in the world for the production of renewable energies,” he said, mentioning Chile and the Australian west coast.
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