Belgian marine contractor Jan De Nul and Australian mining company Fortescue have pledged to lay a 1,000km subsea transmission line to carry solar power from Africa to Europe.
The agreement was signed in Rabat, Morocco, by Andrew Forrest, the chair of Fortescue, and Jan Pieter De Nul, chair of the dredging specialist.
The companies did not specify timings, users, or the route of the cable.
Morocco is home to the 580MW Ouarzazate Solar Power Station, the world’s largest concentrated solar plant (pictured).
It was built by Spanish contractors TSK, Sener and Acciona as part of the kingdom’s plan to increase the share of renewable energy in its generating mix to 52% by 2030.
Morocco has set a target of investing $1bn a year in solar and wind with the aim of adding a gigawatt of capacity. The country produced around 4.6GW from renewable energy last year.
Forrest said: “There is a massive opportunity to send renewable electrons from Morocco and North Africa to Europe to industries and consumers who deserve a better choice than the only one they currently have available – carbon emitting, global warming causing fossil fuels.”
He added that the lack of cable-laying capability was creating a bottleneck in connecting Morocco to Europe.
For his part, De Nul said his company’s fleet included “five of the world’s cutting edge subsea cable-laying vessels, and we are ready to construct the energy transition”.
Earlier this year, Fortescue entered into a joint venture with the Moroccan state-owned company OCP Group to produce green hydrogen and ammonia for energy and fertiliser.
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