London: An ambitious joint UK-Morocco plan to supply Britain with energy via a cable through the Sahara desert has been delayed by "at least a year" due to political unrest in London, according to a report published by The Observer on Sunday. has been postponed for.

By 2030, 7 million homes could be powered by the £18 billion ($22 billion) Xlinks project, which is expected to be operational in 2027 and will provide the UK with 8% of its energy needs from large-scale wind and solar farms . desert through 3,800 km of cable.

Morocco is a well-known market leader in the hydropower, solar and wind power sectors, and it is second only to Egypt in terms of solar intensity, a metric of generating power.

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But as The Observer pointed out, the connection has been called off until at least the end of 2023. According to Sir Dave Lewis, the project has been slowed by recent political unrest in Britain, where three prime ministers have taken office in less than six months. , executive chairman of the initiative.

We spoke briefly with Kwesi Kwarteng, who was the trade secretary at the time, who said, "We like it very much, but it needs to go through Treasury." A review took place with the Treasury, the Cabinet Office and the Department for Trade, and Lewis told The Observer it went very well.

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When we returned to him to begin the details, the political world erupted and everything came to a halt. Plus, everyone has changed, so it's like starting over, he continued.

For the UK to achieve its net zero targets, to secure its energy supply, and to keep costs down, timing is critical. We missed a year.

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The cable carrying the power will go from Morocco through Portugal, northern Spain and western France before looping around the Scilly Isles and terminating in Devon, England, where Xlinks has already approved a 1.8 GW connection.