Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune proposed during his recent talks with German officials in Berlin that Algeria replace Morocco in the Sila Atlantik project, the flagship initiative aimed at transmitting renewable electricity to Germany through a transcontinental subsea cable, according to German sources who spoke to Assahifa English.
The sources said Tebboune presented the proposal during energy discussions with German officials on July 16, arguing that Algeria possesses solar and wind resources comparable to those of Morocco and is capable of meeting the technical and natural requirements needed to supply Germany with renewable electricity.
According to the sources, the Algerian president also suggested easing the conditions that Algeria would require for the project compared with those sought by Morocco, while expressing his country's readiness to shoulder, or finance, the majority of the project's cost.
The Algerian side portrayed the proposal as an opportunity for Germany to overcome the current obstacles facing the project, highlighting the country's vast desert land, abundant solar irradiation, and renewable energy potential in the Algerian Sahara.
However, the sources stressed that German officials merely listened to the proposal without offering a detailed response or making any political or technical commitment, leaving all options open.
The official joint statement issued after Tebboune's visit to Berlin makes no reference to the Sila Atlantik project or to any possibility of replacing Morocco with Algeria. It does, however, state that energy, the energy transition, and infrastructure were among the key issues discussed, while emphasizing the importance of the German-Algerian partnership and the Southern Hydrogen Corridor.
The revelations come a day after Reuters reported on the challenges facing the estimated $30 billion Morocco-Germany electricity interconnection project. Citing four Moroccan and German sources, the agency said the main disagreements concern the project's governance structure and the long-term political and legal guarantees sought by Rabat, rather than its technical feasibility.
According to Reuters, Morocco is insisting on a formal government-to-government agreement with Germany to provide sovereign backing for the project and ensure its long-term continuity. Rabat is also seeking a design that would allow electricity to flow in both directions, enabling Morocco to import electricity through the cable when necessary instead of limiting it to exports to Germany. A German source told Reuters that bidirectional transmission is technically feasible but would increase the project's overall cost.
Reuters also reported that Moroccan authorities had previously pledged approximately 150,000 hectares of land in the Guelmim-Oued Noun region for the earlier British-led Xlinks project but have not yet formally allocated the same area to Sila Atlantik. Meanwhile, the project's developer said the initiative continues to advance along its technical, commercial, regulatory, and financial roadmap while evaluating the most appropriate long-term development options, indicating that negotiations remain ongoing and no decision has been taken to abandon the project.
The Sila Atlantik project envisages the construction of two high-voltage subsea transmission lines stretching nearly 4,800 kilometers, with a combined capacity of 3.6 gigawatts. The cables would be powered by solar and wind farms in Morocco capable of generating up to 15 gigawatts, supported by large-scale electricity storage systems.
According to its developers, the project could deliver around 26 terawatt-hours of electricity annually, equivalent to nearly 5% of Germany's total electricity consumption, while providing clean power for more than 20 hours a day through a combination of solar generation, wind energy, and battery storage.
The concept originated with the British Xlinks project, which aimed to transport renewable electricity from Morocco's Tan-Tan region to the United Kingdom through a roughly 4,000-kilometer subsea cable. However, the British government decided in June 2025 not to proceed with the long-term price guarantee required for the project, effectively ending its guaranteed route to the UK market.
A new German company was subsequently established to develop the Sila Atlantik project linking Morocco directly to Germany, with Xlinks joining the consortium of investors supporting the initiative.
Despite the current negotiations, there are no official indications that Berlin has abandoned the Moroccan option. In February 2026, German State Secretary for Economic Affairs Frank Wetzel, in a letter to Moroccan Minister of Investment Karim Zidane, reaffirmed Germany's interest in the project and its willingness to continue discussions. The project has also been included, at an exploratory stage, in Europe's long-term electricity transmission network planning.
The information obtained by Assahifa English suggests that Algeria's proposal came at a particularly sensitive moment, as differences over political arrangements and long-term guarantees between Rabat and Berlin became public. Algeria already maintains an established energy partnership with Germany covering natural gas, green hydrogen, and the Southern Hydrogen Corridor, providing a political backdrop that could encourage Berlin to examine Tebboune's proposal, even though it has not publicly expressed any intention of relocating the project.
In practical terms, however, replacing Morocco with Algeria would involve much more than relocating renewable energy facilities. The current project is designed around Moroccan production sites, a predefined subsea route, technical and regulatory studies, land allocations, grid connections, and financing arrangements. Relocating it to Algeria would likely require redesigning its engineering, route, permits, financing, and implementation from the ground up, an analytical assessment based on the project's publicly available specifications rather than any official position from the developer or the German government.
Conversely, Morocco's negotiating position reflects its determination to ensure that the project serves as a strategic two-way electricity interconnection, rather than merely an export corridor, while anchoring it in a binding intergovernmental agreement capable of protecting it against future political or policy shifts in Europe.
Between what German sources described to Assahifa English as Algeria's "generous" offer and Morocco's insistence on guarantees that safeguard the project's long-term economic viability through reciprocal electricity flows, Germany's final decision remains open, as renewable energy increasingly emerges as a new arena of geopolitical competition between Rabat and Algiers for the role of Europe's closest green energy partner.
