SINGAPORE: Singapore has granted conditional approval to Sun Cable to import 1.75 gigawatt (GW) of low-carbon electricity from Australia to Singapore.
The imported electricity is expected to harness solar power from Australia’s Northern Territory and will be transmitted via new subsea cables measuring about 4,200km, said the Energy Market Authority (EMA) on Tuesday (Oct 22).
Sun Cable said its US$13.5 billion solar project in Australia, the Australia-Asia PowerLink, is set to be the “world’s largest solar farm and battery storage infrastructure”.
The amount of renewable energy imported represents about 15 per cent of Singapore’s total electricity needs, the company added.
EMA said: “The conditional approval awarded to Sun Cable recognises that the project can be technically and commercially viable based on the proposal and information submitted thus far.”
This will provide the company with the support to continue to develop the project, which is expected to start after 2035.
Sun Cable must update its proposal to meet EMA’s conditions before the project can be considered for a conditional licence.
These conditions include compliance with EMA’s technical requirements and achieving a commercially viable price acceptable to customers.
“Sun Cable will also need to secure all requisite approvals of relevant jurisdictions, including countries which the cables will pass through,” said EMA.
Speaking at the Asia Clean Energy Summit on Tuesday, Second Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng called the proposal “an ambitious project”, given the scale and the distance between Australia and Singapore.
“Time will be needed to develop it, and we expect it to come online only after 2035,” Dr Tan said.
“But when completed, the project will be a meaningful complement to the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Power Grid, and serve as an additional source of electricity for Singapore.”
The company said the cables will be laid through Indonesian waters.
This is not the first time such a project has been mooted. Sun Cable had intended to begin construction on the undersea cables in 2024 and be fully operational by 2029, but the company fell into voluntary administration in January 2023.
The firm had fallen short of funds, it announced then. Voluntary administration refers to a process where a company’s directors appoint independent administrators to step in to find a path forward for the business, which is usually facing financial difficulties.
Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong said in February 2023 that the company’s decision to enter voluntary administration did not affect Singapore financially as it had not made any commitment to the project.
In May that year, the company’s administrators said it had been rescued by part owner and Australian tech entrepreneur Mike Cannon-Brookes.
