The Portugal Morocco interconnector is gaining fresh momentum, as Lisbon and Rabat pursue EU classification and private investment to build a new cross-border power link.
Portugal and Morocco are reviving the Portugal Morocco interconnector plan with a clear financing strategy. They will ask the European Commission to classify the cable as a Project of Common Interest (PCI), which could unlock EU funding and attract private capital.
A new push after the 2025 blackout
The move follows the April 2025 blackout in Spain and Portugal. Reuters reported that the outage exposed the Iberian Peninsula’s limited links with the rest of Europe and helped revive a project first studied in 2018. Portugal’s minister for environment and energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, and Morocco’s minister for energy transition and sustainable development, Leila Benali, announced the plan after meeting in Lisbon.
Portugal and Morocco will pursue two tracks at once. They will seek support from the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility and test private investor appetite through an expression-of-interest process for grid operators and utilities. Carvalho said the government does not want to overburden taxpayers or consumers.
The wider market signal is clear. Europe is still looking for more resilient cross-border power routes. A direct connection with Morocco would add another source of electricity for Portugal during disruptions, while improving wider supply security.
Morocco’s role in Europe’s grid
The plan also strengthens Morocco’s position as a clean energy partner for Europe. Reuters reported that Morocco is already the only African country physically connected to mainland Europe’s electricity grid, through two subsea links with Spain. Those links have a combined transmission capacity of about 1,400 megawatts.
That existing infrastructure matters for investors. It shows that the Iberian–North African corridor is already partly built in practice. It also gives the new project a more established policy and technical base than a stand-alone concept.
Earlier studies, including 2018 estimates, valued the subsea cable at about €800 million. More recent reporting has cited an updated estimate of about €650 million for the planned undersea link between Portugal and Morocco. The exact design remains open. Officials have not yet decided whether the link will be a direct subsea cable to Morocco or partly use existing infrastructure through Spain.
Morocco’s clean power ambitions add to the strategic case. Reuters said the country has invested heavily in solar and wind power and wants to become a major exporter of clean electricity and green hydrogen to Europe. That supports the investment thesis behind the Portugal Morocco interconnector: a cross-border asset with policy backing, system relevance and potential long-term contracted returns.
For investors, the key issue is execution. The next stage will show whether Brussels supports the project, whether utilities and grid operators show strong interest, and whether the updated economics still hold.
Watch for the Commission’s response, because it will shape whether the Portugal Morocco interconnector moves from concept to bankable infrastructure.
Source: Further Africa
