Australia Greenlights Ambitious $13.5 Billion Solar Power Export Project

Australia has approved an ambitious project to export solar power to Singapore via a subsea cable spanning over 4,300 kilometers.

The project has an estimated price tag of some $13.5 billion, Reuters reported, and the final investment decision on it is slated for 2027, with electricity set to start flowing along the cable in 2030.

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

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

However, the original cost of $13 billion kept rising, setting the two leaders of the project at odds with each other. Last year, the differences apparently proved irreconcilable and Sun Cable went into voluntary administration.

The costs of the Australia-Asia PowerLink Project “just kept rising by 10%, 50%, 100%,” Fortescue Metals’ Andrew Forrest told CNN at the time, adding “That isn’t sustainable. That’s what I would expect with inexperienced management and a board of directors who have never done large projects.”

Cannon-Brookes, however, kept believing in the project and said he would bring in external investors. It seems 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 following the government’s green light, although as Reuters reported, no details were provided on how the construction work will be financed.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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