An Australian company plans to supply Singapore with clean power from the world’s largest solar farm at Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.
The $20 billion Sun Cable project could supply one-fifth of the Asian city-state’s power consumption via a 3,800 km submarine cable that will travel via the Indonesian archipelago.
The 10 GW solar panel array will take up 15,000 hectares of desert when it starts production in the mid-2020s. It will also feature solar battery storage to supply power around the clock, the Guardian reports. There are also rival projects of similar scale being devised.
Australia to become clean energy centre
A group of Australian developers came up with the ambitious project. It is approved by the Northern Territory Government, while software billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes may also invest.
Once up and running, overhead transmission lines will carry electricity to Darwin and plug into the national grid. Most will then be exported by high-voltage, direct current cable to Singapore. Developers plan to lock in finance over the next four years.
The plan has huge potential for Australia to meet its Paris agreement emission targets by exporting clean energy. This world’s largest solar farmcould then gradually replace our large coal exports and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.
Pilbara wind-solar plant rivals world’s largest solar farm
Meanwhile, a consortium of global energy leaders is creating an even larger wind-solar hybrid plant in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.
The proposed Asian Renewable Energy Hub in WA’s north will provide up to 15 GW of wind and solar power generation.
Around 3 GW will serve Pilbara residents and large-scale users like mines and mineral processing plants. The consortium will then produce green hydrogen from the remaining 12 GW. This will serve both home and export markets.
Project developer Andrew Dickson believes it will be the largest wind-solar hybrid plant in the world, the Guardian reports. He says it provides renewable baseload energy at oil and gas scale.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government is backing a proposed $56 million second interconnector between Tasmania and the mainland.
The 1,200 MW interconnector would encourage clean energy storage in the Apple Isle as well as boosting the Tasmanian and Victorian economies.
Tasmania’s extensive hydroelectrical network of dams can also act as batteries. This power could then be fed into the mainland grid via the new interconnector.
