What could be the world's largest solar farm, set to be built across 47 square miles of Australia's sunny outback, received government approval on August 21. That alone is good news for the climate: The $20 billion commercial project will provide enough electricity to power 3 million homes, helping transform a major coal-mining country into a renewable energy powerhouse.
But this project by Australia's Suncable may do more than just clean electrons and a cooling planet: it could break down a major barrier to the expansion of clean energy — borders — and contribute to a new campaign among 11 Asian countries to cooperate on decarbonization.
Known as the Australia-Asia Power Link, the solar project, with Indonesia's permission, aims to send at least a fifth of its power over a 2,670-mile undersea cable to Singapore, an island nation much smaller in land area and with fewer sunny days than Australia's Northern Territory. A massive battery array would store power for peak hours.
“No country can do it alone, and no government can do it alone,” Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last year when he was prime minister. “Only by working together can we achieve net zero on climate change.”
The example of this regional energy grid would help Southeast Asia move away from its high reliance on fossil fuels, and is another effort to ensure peace in a region plagued by Chinese maritime aggression, civil war in Myanmar and the North Korean nuclear threat.
“The confluence of geopolitical instability and uncertain growth prospects has led to a surge in cooperative efforts in the region,” Tetsuya Watanabe, director of the Center for Economic Research for ASEAN and East Asia, said at the East Asia Forum.
The European Union, a symbol of how to restore regional peace after a devastating war, began in a similar way. After World War II, France and Germany joined forces with four other countries to create a supranational body to regulate the coal, steel and iron industries. The European Coal and Steel Community sowed the seeds for the creation of the current 27-nation union that has become a global advocate for rights, freedoms and clean energy.
Japan is launching a similar energy cooperation effort with Australia and nine other Southeast Asian countries in 2023. Known as the Asia Zero Emission Community, the consortium already has hundreds of carbon-reduction projects underway.
As Europe has already shown, when countries pool resources and help integrate their regions, it helps to cool nationalist fervor and preserve peace. It might even help cool the planet.
