The Australian government has approved a $19 billion solar power project to export electricity to Singapore, hailing it as “defining infrastructure for the next generation.”
The landmark moment comes as coal and gas remain Australia's biggest sources of electricity generation and energy issues are “politically difficult,” according to Al Jazeera.
It's difficult, but not insurmountable
The new project, known as Australia-Asia Power Link (AAPowerLink), proposes building a 12,000-hectare (46-square-mile) solar farm in a remote area of Australia's Northern Territory.
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The facility would be capable of generating up to 6 gigawatts of power, which would be transported over 800 kilometers (500 miles) of overhead lines to Darwin, then on to Singapore via undersea cables, with accompanying batteries “to provide 24/7 power,” the Register reported.
Suncable, owned by billionaire software tycoon Mike Cannon-Brookes, said the project would supply up to 15% of Singapore's energy needs when completed in the early 2030s.
“This will be the largest solar farm in the world,” said Minister for Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek, “signalling Australia as a global leader in green energy.”
Mr Plibersek's office added that the approval came with “strict conditions” to protect the natural environment, including avoiding the habitat of the greater bilby, a rabbit-like mammal considered endangered.
While the project has received environmental approval in Australia, it “still faces a range of regulatory hurdles,” including assessments by authorities in Singapore and Indonesia, Al Jazeera reported. SunCable also still needs approval from indigenous groups in Australia.
Bevan Slattery, an Australian technology entrepreneur with extensive experience building undersea data cables, highlighted problems with the plan, arguing that the route from Darwin to Singapore would pass through some of the world's most dangerous oceans, where tectonic and volcanic activity is active.
But the scale of the project is “formidable, but not insurmountable”, the Register said, and the 800km transmission line to Darwin is “less frightening” because it is easily accessible via a shared rail line, and “is not particularly long for anything of its kind”, it added.
Sun vulnerability
The move comes at a time of deep divisions in Australia over energy: While the ruling centre-left Labor Party and the opposition centre-right Liberal Party have both committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, the parties “cannot agree on the steps to get there”, Al Jazeera reported.
For example, when the Liberal Party proposed building the country's first nuclear power station this summer, Labor Premier Anthony Albanese dismissed the idea as a “whim-whisper” that had not been costed.
Mr Plibersek said Australians had a choice between a “job-creating and price-lowering renewable energy transition that's already underway, or paying for an expensive nuclear fantasy that may never come to fruition”.
Australia has “long been a world leader in the deployment of solar power,” but around 99% of its solar panels are imported, exposing “vulnerabilities” in Australia's renewable energy supply chain, News.Az reports.
As such, the Solar Sunshot project, an effort to increase domestic solar panel production, is a “key element” of Australia's “wider strategy” to “secure its position as a global leader in the renewable energy sector”.
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