Singapore firm jump-starts plan to build world’s biggest solar farm in Australia

The US$15-billion Australia Singapore Power Link project aims to reduce the city’s reliance on imported liquefied natural gas (LNG)

Sun Cable hopes to secure financing for the whole project by late 2023, its chief executive said

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Singapore’s Sun Cable plans to build a 10-gigawatt solar farm in the Northern Territory, Australia. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 7:00am, 21 Nov 2019Updated: 6:22pm, 21 Nov 2019

An ambitious megaproject to supply solar power from northern Australia to Singapore via the world’s longest subsea high voltage cable has been given a jump start after two Australian billionaires invested some A$50 million (US$34 million), the project’s chief said on Wednesday.

Singapore’s Sun Cable, which is leading the roughly A$22 billion (US$15 billion) project, raised the money from the private family fund of Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes and mining magnate Andrew Forrest’s private company Squadron Energy.

Sun Cable plans to build a 10-gigawatt solar farm in Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, a 22 gigawatt hour battery storage facility and a 4,500km (2,800 miles) transmission network to Singapore. All three elements would be the biggest of their kind in the world.

The Australia Singapore Power Link would supply one-fifth of Singapore’s power needs, helping to ease the island nation’s dependence on imported liquefied natural gas (LNG), according to Sun Cable’s website.

Sun Cable Chief Executive David Griffin said the funds injected by Cannon-Brookes and Forrest, which amounted to less than A$50 million, would cover the costs of designing the project and obtaining regulatory and environmental approvals, ahead of seeking full financing.