- Singapore firm Sun Cable plans to provide a fifth of the city’s energy through an undersea cable linked to a solar farm 3,800km away in Australia.
- Experts – and billionaire backers – say that’s not as crazy as it might sound, even if it is commercially risky
Deep in the Australian desert, the world’s largest solar farm is being built.Its aim is ambitious: much of the power generated will be exported 3,800km to Singapore via a high-voltage, direct current submarine cable slung across the sea floor.The farm, estimated to cost at least A$20 billion (US$13.7 billion), will have an array of 10-gigawatt solar panels spread across 15,000 hectares and will be supported by a 22GWh storage plant. Sun Cable, the Singapore firm behind the project, hopes it can produce up to 20 per cent of the country’s energy requirements.About 95 per cent of Singapore’s electricity is generated from natural gas, with most coming from imported liquid natural gas (LNG). Singapore’s leaders have said the country will ramp up its solar energy output.
The finer details of who will buy the power on the Singapore end have not been confirmed, but iSwitch, one of Singapore’s top electricity retailers and the country’s largest green retailer, has shown a keen interest.
Andrew Koscharsky, chief commercial officer at iSwitch, said Singapore’s appetite for clean energy was growing and that the plan was a “win-win” for everyone.
“If you said to me a year ago that Singapore would have 350 megawatts of solar installed by 2020, I would have thought ‘no way in the world’ – but here we are. It’s been achieved,” he said. “Now, the next target is 2,000 megawatts by 2030. This is incredibly ambitious, but projects like Sun Cable are going to help us get there.”....
....MUCH MORE
Previously:
May 22
BP Smacks Exxon Upside Head With New Green Hydrogen Scheme (can SunCable to Singapore be far behind?)
A couple of the approaches being talked about, make hydrogen in Australia and send it to Singapore or use submarine electrical cable to carry (solar) electricity to Singapore.*
