Federal government gives approval to SunCable’s NT solar farm project
The federal government has given environmental approval for the first stage of SunCable’s Australia-Asia Power Link (AAPL) project in the Northern Territory, which is planned as the nation’s biggest solar farm and a potential exporter of electricity to Singapore.
There were “strict conditions to protect nature” attached to the approval, according to a statement from environment minister Tanya Plibersek on Wednesday, “including requirements to completely avoid important species like the Greater Bilby and critical habitat.”
The federal level-approval follows Northern Territory government and NT Environment Protection Authority approvals in July.
“Securing these environmental approvals underpins development of the Australian infrastructure required to supply electricity to new green industries in the Northern Territory, and to export this green power to Singapore,” Sun Cable said in a statement.
The 12,000 hectare project is expected to generate 4 gigawatts of renewable energy – enough to power 3 million homes – and be “economically and socially transformational” for the territory.
SunCable estimates this to include over $20 billion in economic value to the NT, a peak workforce of 14,300, and support for an average of 6,800 direct and indirect jobs per year in the construction phase.
Plibersek claimed the project would generate “six times the amount of energy a 700MW large nuclear reactor could deliver, based on IEAA figures”, contrasting it with the opposition’s nuclear ambitions.
“This massive project is a generation-defining piece of infrastructure. It will be the largest solar precinct in the world – and heralds Australia as the world leader in green energy.”
The solar farm will be located on a pastoral station between Elliot and Tennant Creek, and includes an 800 kilometre transmission line to Darwin and an underwater cable to the limit of Australian waters.
Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes first announced the SunCable project in 2018, complete with 3,000-kilometre undersea cable to export energy to Singapore. He described it in 2019 as a “completely batshit insane project” though one where the “engineering all checks out”.
SunCable collapsed in early-2023 after a reported dispute between Cannon-Brookes and Fortescue Executive Chairman Andrew Forrest, whose Squadron Energy was an investor in the venture. It was bought out of administration in May that year by a consortium led by Cannon-Brookes’s Grok Ventures.
Picture: credit 5B
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