The new era of clean energy: Transcontinental power lines

A grandiose project to build a nearly 2,500-mile subsea power line would connect vast wind and solar farms in Morocco to the U.K., providing a reliable supply of electricity to meet a projected boom in demand.

The plan’s architect, Simon Morrish, said it is the U.K.’s best option for clean electricity.

“It was like, well, why is no one doing this?" said Morrish, a former management consultant who also runs a landscaping-services company.

Morrish has secured early-stage investment and hired a seasoned team, but his vision faces long odds. He needs to coax subsidies from the U.K. government, raise tens of billions of dollars and secure crucial permits from countries that control the seabed. The plan involves building Scotland’s tallest building—a giant cable factory—and a special ship to lay the lines.

The project nevertheless shows how the electricity map is changing.

Since coal and gas plants can sit near the areas they serve, their transmission lines generally don’t need to travel long distances. But big empty sites with lots of wind and sunshine tend to be far from cities that need electricity.

Already, grids in Northern Europe are being connected by subsea cables to share growing supplies of wind power. A 475-mile power line from the U.K. to Denmark, the world’s longest land-and-subsea grid connection, was switched on in December.

Singapore, which lacks space for wind and solar farms, wants to import 30% of its electricity by 2035. Last year, it granted conditional approvals on plans to import much of that electricity via subsea cables—some more than 600 miles long—from renewable-energy projects in Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Connecting Morocco to the U.K. takes the idea to another level.

Scotland’s tallest building

Few places are richer in green-energy potential than western Morocco. The shortest day gets 10 hours of sunshine, and strong winds pick up late in the day. Morrish’s venture, Xlinks, wants to build enough solar farms, wind turbines and batteries in the area to meet 8% of Britain’s electricity needs, or to power roughly seven million homes.

It will take nearly 10,000 miles of cable for four offshore transmission lines—far more than existing suppliers could serve up. So Morrish started a cable-supply company to build a factory, with a tower taller than the Washington Monument, in which colossal cables will be lowered as they are coated in insulation.

The factory’s construction near the Scottish village of Fairlie has been delayed several times. Locals are doubtful it will happen.

“It’s a nice area, a scenic area, and you’re going to build a huge factory running 24/7?" said Rita Holmes, a longtime Fairlie resident.

Transmission projects can take well over a decade to materialize. In the U.S., the Biden administration is pushing to ease permitting for lines that strengthen the country’s grid, boosting hopes for more projects.

A 339-mile high-voltage transmission line that is under construction will bring hydropower to New York City from Quebec. A 550-mile line will bring wind power to California and Arizona from New Mexico.

“What you need is a bit of a catalyst," said Matthieu Muzumdar, partner and deputy chief executive at infrastructure investor Meridiam. “Some of the federal and state programs we’re seeing could be part of that."

Overseas, Meridiam is the lead investor in the first connection between the U.K. and Germany, and intends to invest in a planned 750-mile power line connecting Greece to Israel, via Cyprus. The project will lower lengths of cable weighing as much as the Eiffel Tower to depths of around 2 miles in the Mediterranean.

“What we are trying is bigger than what has been done before, both in terms of the size of the project and in terms of the amount of electricity we are trying to transmit," said Pascal Radue, who leads the generation and transmission unit at Nexans, a cable supplier working on the Greece-to-Cyprus first leg of that project.

Nexans is among a handful of companies that supply high-voltage direct-current cables that can move electricity hundreds of miles with minimal losses.

The company has sold out of the cables for nearly five years. Its rivals have similar backlogs.

The dream of African wind and sunshine

Demand for cable could sputter if the growth of renewables falls short of expectations—or if big projects falter.

Sweden’s government recently rejected a connection under the Baltic Sea to Germany, citing concerns it would increase prices at home.

Projects could be derailed for any number of reasons. An Xlinks-like plan to transmit Australian solar power to Singapore collapsed last year when the two billionaires leading it had a falling-out. The project has been revived by one of them, Mike Cannon-Brookes, the co-founder of software company Atlassian.

The uncertainty limits how much those cable suppliers are willing to expand. It is why Xlinks needs its own supply.

Morrish has persuaded investors including TotalEnergies, Abu Dhabi’s state-controlled utility company and General Electric’s power-and-wind spinoff to buy into his plan. Xlinks closed a £100 million funding round in April, equivalent to $126 million.

But construction costs alone will be between £22 billion and £24 billion, Xlinks says. The company is talking to the U.K. government about a subsidy that Morrish hopes would spur investments, but those discussions have dragged.

Morocco also has to buy into the idea. Xlinks says the country would gain jobs, investment and tax revenue.

The dream of sending North Africa’s wind and sunshine to Europe isn’t new. An earlier effort, which would have moved power over land, fell through over a decade ago amid infighting between its backers and political turmoil in the region.

Morrish said prospects are better now: Renewable-energy costs have fallen, and subsea cables can pass through fewer jurisdictions, making permitting easier.

“I have absolute confidence it will get done," Morrish said. “It’s just taking a bit longer than I’d hoped."

Write to Ed Ballard at ed.ballard@wsj.com and Emma Brown at Emma.Brown@wsj.com