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An Australian mining billionaire is seeking support from Ed Miliband for a new multibillion-pound power link between Europe and North Africa.
Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, the founder and boss of iron ore giant Fortescue, has held discussions with the Energy Secretary in recent weeks about the project, which would aim to pipe clean energy generated from African solar farms to the European Continent.
Fortescue wants to develop up to 100 gigawatts (GW) of clean power capacity in North Africa, with talks ongoing with various European governments about running multiple subsea cables alongside one another to bring over electricity.
These would be able to transport up to 500 terrawatt hours (TWh) of electricity per year, roughly equivalent to Germany’s entire annual consumption or 17 Hinkley Point C-sized nuclear power stations operating round the clock.
It would be backed up by battery storage and potentially hydrogen-fired power plants, ensuring the proposed interconnector could provide round-the-clock supplies and potentially support for system stability as well.
Fortescue has yet to confirm the interconnector’s route but it is understood that power for Britain would be transported via other intermediary Western European countries.
The mining company last year signed a deal with Belgium-based offshore cable maker Jan de Nul to look at potential manufacturing facilities in Morocco.
It is the latest business to look at tapping the vast solar power of North Africa, with a £25bn project proposed by rival Xlinks also vying for support from the Government.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Mr Forrest said: “You’ve got the most impossible amount of energy being wasted every single day in North Africa right now, so we’re developing a proposal to send the equivalent of 500TW to Europe.
“And I really want to stress, this is not intermittent. It would be 24/7, baseload power, just like what I need to run my company.
“It can’t run on wind and solar going up and down, it can’t stop for Christmas, it can’t stop for Easter. It has to go every second of every day.
“That’s when we need power, and that’s when Britain and Europe do as well.”
Mr Forrest founded Fortescue in 2003 and built it into one of the world’s biggest iron ore producers. But following a near-death experience in 2016, he became involved in environmentalism and vowed to transform his company into a green energy champion.
He has argued his interconnector scheme can help to cut the power bills of European households and businesses while improving grid stability.
The billionaire insisted he was not seeking subsidies from the Government but wanted a deal that would commit the UK to buying electricity at market prices over a set period of time.