Australia gives green light to ambitious $13.5 billion solar energy export project

Australia has approved an ambitious project to export solar energy to Singapore via an undersea cable spanning more than 4,300 kilometers.

The project has an estimated price tag of around $13.5 billion, Reuters reportedand the final investment decision on it is scheduled for 2027, with electricity to begin flowing along the cable in 2030.

The project’s capacity will be a maximum of 6 GW, part of which will be delivered to the capital of Australia’s Northern Territory, Darwin, and the rest destined for Singapore.

The original idea for the cable belongs to two billionaires: Mike Cannon-Brookes, the co-founder and co-chief executive of the software company Atlassian, and Andrew Forrester, the mining magnate. The two set up a company called Sun Cable to build a massive solar farm in the Northern Territory with a capacity of 10 GW, later increased to 20 GW, which would make it the largest solar farm in the world.

However, the initial $13 billion cost continued to rise, putting the project’s two leaders at odds. Last year, the differences apparently proven irreconcilable and Sun Cable went into voluntary administration.

The costs of the Australia-Asia PowerLink Project “kept going up 10%, 50%, 100%,” Fortescue Metals’ Andrew Forrest told CNN at the time, adding, “It’s not sustainable. That’s what I would expect with inexperienced management and a board that has never done big projects.”

Cannon-Brookes, however, continued to believe in the project and said it would bring in outside investors. Apparently those investors are the Australian government.

“SunCable will now focus its efforts on the next stage of planning to advance the project towards a final investment decision, targeted by 2027,” the company said after the government’s green light, although as reported by Reuters no details were provided details of how the construction work is being carried out. will be funded.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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