4,300 km submarine cable to transmit solar power across continents

Singapore has just conditionally approved a company to deploy a 4,300km submarine cable to transmit solar power from Australia.

Singapore has given conditional approval to Sun Cable to import 1.75GW of solar power from Australia, the Energy Market Authority (EMA) said. The approval recognises that the project is technically and commercially viable based on the submitted proposal and documentation.

Sun Cable continues to complete the dossier to meet the EMA's conditions for licensing, including the legal part related to the countries through which the cable route passes.

Speaking at the Asia Clean Energy Summit, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Tan See Leng called the proposal an ambitious project, both in terms of scale and the distance between Australia and Singapore.

“It will take time to implement the project. We hope to have the project operational after 2035,” Dr. Tan said.

Sun Cable is developing a $13.5 billion solar project in Australia. The Australia Asia Power Link will be the world's largest solar farm and battery storage facility. The company said the cables will be laid through Indonesian waters.

4,300 km submarine cable to transmit solar power across continents photo 1

Solar power transmission cable. Photo: NA.

According to Mitesh Patel, acting CEO of Sun Cable, the submarine cable plays a vital role in the global energy transition, connecting high-yielding renewable energy regions such as northern Australia with high-demand hubs such as Singapore.

This is not the first time such a project has been proposed. Sun Cable intended to build the submarine cable by 2024 and have it fully operational by 2029, but the company went into administration in January 2023 due to lack of funding. In May 2023, Sun Cable was rescued by Australian tech entrepreneur Mike Cannon Brookes.

Imported renewable energy accounts for about 9% of Singapore's total electricity demand. Importing low-carbon electricity is part of Singapore's strategy to decarbonize the power sector, which currently accounts for about 40% of the country's emissions.

The country is looking to import about 6GW of low-carbon electricity by 2035.

Singapore has granted conditional approval for 2GW of electricity imports from Indonesia, as well as conditional approval for 1.4GW from Indonesia, 1GW from Cambodia and 1.2GW from Vietnam.

Singapore will also import up to 200MW of renewable hydropower through a cross-border initiative called the Laos-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore Energy Integration Project.

Original link: https://vietnamnet.vn/tuyen-cap-ngam-4-300-km-truyen-dien-mat-troi-xuyen-chau-luc-2334383.html.

According to Vietnamnet

Source: https://tienphong.vn/tuyen-cap-ngam-4300-km-truyen-dien-mat-troi-xuyen-chau-luc-post1685725.tpo