Submarine cable with Morocco: major concerns in the United Kingdom

The plan to build a 3,800km undersea cable that will link Morocco to the United Kingdom and provide the British with 8% of their electricity needs is hardly reassuring for the residents of Abbotsham, in north Devon.

The £16 billion ($21.9 billion) 3,800km (2,300 mile) subsea power cable project will link Morocco and the UK. Xlinks will build a 10.5GW (7GW solar and 3.5GW wind) power station in Morocco. The project would bring wind and solar power to the UK using subsea cables arriving overland near Abbotsham in north Devon. Over a period of up to two years, four cables are to connect north Devon, along a route of around nine miles (14.5km), and a new power substation is also expected to be built alongside the existing substation at Alverdiscott, as well as two new converter stations, on a site of around 32 hectares (79 acres), reports BBC. This is cause for concern for residents living in the project area. “I feel devastated. (…) The area will be in chaos for years to come,” worries Tony Sloan, a 76-year-old man. He and his wife Ann Sloan have built a retirement home in a gently sloping valley on the north Devon coast.