As I learn from this Greentechmedia article by Jason Deign, there is a new startup in the United Kingdom with big plans.
Their big plan is to connect North Africa directly with the UK. They want to build a long subsea cable hugging the coasts of Portugal, Spain, and France, at a cost of $21.6 billion. One advantage they see is that it is easier to get the necessary permits with only these countries involved.
This is similar to the Asia Super Grid idea Masayoshi Son proposed, a long power line from the Mongolian desert right up to Japan.
The nice thing about this kind of project is that you only need to build that power line once and then can use it for centuries. The Suez canal was a very cheap project if you figure in that it is still in use and divide the cost by the number of years it is operating.
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