Text size
The Australian government on Wednesday approved a plan to build a solar and battery plant that has been dubbed “the world’s largest solar facility.”
Authorities have announced environmental approvals for SunCable’s $24 billion project in Australia’s remote north.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said the facility would generate enough energy to power three million homes and would eventually be connected to Singapore to sell electricity to the city-state.
“It will be the largest solar power facility in the world and will establish Australia as a global leader in green energy,” Plibersek said.
The planned 12,000-hectare development is located in the sunny Northern Territory region and is backed by Australian technology mogul and environmental activist Mike Cannon-Brookes.
The plant will have an installed capacity of four gigawatts per hour for domestic use and another two for sale to Singapore.
It will have batteries that will be able to store around 40 gigawatts.
SunCable’s managing director for Australia, Cameron Garnsworthy, said the approval was “a milestone in the project’s trajectory.”
However, the project still needs other authorisations, including from the Singapore Energy Market Authority, the Indonesian government and Australian indigenous communities.
“SunCable will now focus on the next stage of planning to advance the project towards a final investment decision expected in 2027,” Garnsworthy said.
Australia is currently a major exporter of gas and coal and its recent governments have not shown much enthusiasm for the transition to renewable energy sources.
However, environmental awareness has grown in this country, which has suffered the severe effects of climate change with intense heat waves, massive fires and floods.
Countries around the world are racing to launch solar energy projects to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels.
China is leading the effort, building twice as much solar and wind farm capacity as all other countries combined.
In Australia, renewables will generate 32% of electricity in 2022, far from the 47% generated by coal, according to the latest government data.
Minister Plibersek hailed the SunCable project as a way to increase the share of renewables while creating “14,300 new jobs in northern Australia”.
Ken Baldwin, director of the Energy Change Institute at the Australian National University, said the project was groundbreaking because it envisaged the export of renewable energy on a large scale.
“Australia has the best solar and wind resources of any country and as a result is installing solar and wind farms at a faster rate than other countries,” Baldwin told AFP.
But he said the momentum must continue if the country is to meet its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.
Climate Council chief executive Amanda McKenzie said the new solar power centre was an important step towards making Australia “a clean energy powerhouse” and would be key to “delivering low-cost energy that cuts climate pollution”.
lec/arb/cwl/dbh/arm/mas/dbh/bc/mas/zm
