Australia has made impressive plans to construct a large electricity infrastructure project that will break multiple world records and cover 12,000 hectares of land.
The Australia-Asia Power Link, or AAPowerLink, will see a huge new solar farm set up in Australia’s Northern Territory which is expected to generate up to 20 gigawatts (GW) of electricity.
Most of this would be exported to the island nation Singapore - and eventually Indonesia - via a 2,700-mile submarine power cable. It is thought that this huge amount would provide 15% of the energy required by the Asian city state.
The project will also include a 497-mile overhead line to the Darwin region, which will receive 800 megawatts (MW) of electricity.
The project is set to break multiple world records including the world’s largest solar plant, the largest battery to store energy in order to level energy availability as sunlight varies throughout the day and the world’s longest submarine power cable.
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The expected completion date for the Singapore section is projected for 2027, while the Darwin section should be ready by 2030.
"The proposal will improve the quality of life of Australians through reducing the cost of electricity in Darwin by approximately 12 per cent,” according to an Infrastructure Australia report.
It is estimated to add around eight billion Australian dollars (￡4 billion) to the economy of Australia’s Northern Territory.
“The Northern Territory currently has high-cost electricity produced using gas, both in terms of the financial costs and the environmental costs from [greenhouse gas] emissions,” the report added. “It has a comparative advantage in solar energy production, because of the low opportunity cost of land, the high-quality solar resources and proximity to energy-intense markets in the Indo-Pacific region.”
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This region includes Singapore, which is seeking to transition to imports of renewable energy sources to meet its future electricity demands, which is expected to rise 60% by 2040.
As of 2023, Singapore produces over 94% of its electricity from natural gas, but the AAPowerLink could reduce its emissions by up to six million tonnes per year.
The huge undersea power cable will dwarf the existing longest by a factor of around five, which currently connects the UK with Denmark over a distance of 472 miles.
Over its 70-year operational life, the project is forecast to create 1,750 jobs in construction, 350 operational jobs and 12,000 indirect jobs across Australia, Singapore and Indonesia.