Octopus Energy Group yesterday announced a financial and strategic partnership with developer Xlinks, which plans to lay four 3,800km-long subsea cables to connect a huge solar farm in the Moroccan desert with Devon in Southwest England.

Neither company has disclosed the financial details of the deal, but they say the plan will supply 3.6GW of reliable, clean power to the UK for an average of 20 hours a day, enough green energy to power about seven million heat pumps all year round.

Simon Morrish, chief executive of Xlinks, said the partnership presented “an enormous opportunity to bring down energy bills significantly and help the UK achieve net zero”.  

However, it will be a number of years before impacts will be seen. The project is still in the development phase, with Xlinks currently carrying out economic, environmental and archaeological impact assessments. The project is scheduled to become operational in 2027. Once up and running, Xlinks says...