Major NT solar farm backed by Mike Cannon-Brookes gets environmental approval

The Australian government has given the green light to the first stages of what it describes as the country’s “biggest renewable energy project” – an ambitious proposal to export energy from the farm of the sun in the northern part of the Northern Territory to Singapore via submarine cables.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said the approval under conservation law of SunCable’s $30bn-plus Australia-Asia Power Link was a “big step towards making Australia a renewable energy powerhouse” and that the project he will “change the economy and society” NT.

Backed by tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, SunCable’s proposal includes a large solar farm on a former pastoral station between Elliot and Tennant Creek, an 800km transmission line to Darwin and 4,300km of underground cables. water to electricity in Singapore.

Pliberek said it is a “generational defining feature”. He said: “It will be the largest solar farm in the world and it will announce Australia as a world leader in green energy. “It shows that the energy transition is real and ongoing. it’s happening now.”

The government’s decision was announced three days before the NT election on Saturday. It follows the development being approved by the local Labor government last month.

SunCable Australia chief executive Cameron Garnsworthy said the consortium’s decision was a “bolt of confidence” and “an important moment in the project’s journey”. He said the final investment decision on whether it went ahead was not expected before 2027, and the electricity supply is expected to start in the 2030s.

Plibersek said the approved project is expected to generate enough electricity to power 3m homes and support 14,300 jobs at the peak of construction.

He said there are strict conditions to protect nature, including avoiding the giant bilby, which is considered endangered. The bilby is on a list of 21 threatened mammals that the government has said it will prioritize for protection.

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after the news release

Some details of the SunCable project have changed since it was announced more than six years ago. The federal government’s approval allows for the construction of up to 10 gigawatts of solar power and 42 hours of battery storage on the 12,000-hectare site at Powell Creek, a transmission line to Darwin and cable at the end of the maritime boundary between Australia and Indonesia. .

The company says it intends to supply up to 4GW of power to Darwin and 2GW to Singapore in the first two phases of the project. It was also considering adding a wind farm but would need separate approval.

SunCable went into voluntary administration last year after billionaire investors Cannon-Brookes and Andrew Forrest, a steel specialist who invests in green hydrogen, fell on its side. A consortium including Cannon-Brookes’s Grok Ventures and Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners eventually took over the company’s assets, and Forrest left the business.

The company said its next steps will include continuing discussions with traditional owners about Indian land-use agreements and discussions with authorities in Singapore and Indonesia about its telecom projects under the sea.