SunCable receives environmental clearance for Australia-Singapore RE power cable

SunCable announced it had obtained principal environmental approval for its flagship Australia-Asia Power Link (AAPowerLink) project, touted as the world's largest renewable energy and transmission project under development.

The project, coming up in two phases, seeks to develop the world's largest renewable energy zone in the Barkly region of Northern Territory, Australia. It will deliver up to 4 GW of 24/7 green electricity to industrial customers in Darwin, Australia (900 MW in Stage 1 and ~3 GW in Stage 2), as well as 1.75 GW to customers in Singapore via a 4,300 km subsea cable.

A Final Investment Decision (FID) is expected in 2027, and electricity supply is scheduled to commence in the early 2030s, the company said in a release, adding that the environmental approvals, which came from Australia's Northern Territory Government and the Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority (NT EPA), cover a significant portion of AAPowerLink's project infrastructure, which includes:

• The solar generation and utility-scale storage site at Powell Creek with generation capacity of up to 10 GW;
• An approximately 800 km High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) overhead transmission line running from the solar precinct to Murrumujuk, north-east of Darwin;

• The Darwin converter site, which includes the terminal location for the transmission line and will convert electricity from HVDC to High Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC) for connection to Darwin, before being converted back to HVDC for transmission to Singapore; and
• Subsea HVDC cable from the Darwin Converter Station to the end of Australian territorial waters to the Indonesian border.

Cameron Garnsworthy, Managing Director, SunCable Australia, called the decision a major milestone. "This approval allows us to progress the development, commercial, and engineering activities required to advance the project to FID targeted in 2027," he said.

"This will underpin a new wave of green industrial development in the NT, via prospective projects that include green minerals, hydrogen, e-fuels, and data centers," Garnsworthy added.