SunCable's 14 GW Plan Inches Ahead With Move for Solar Mfg Plant in Darwin

Apr 6, 2021 07:34 AM ET
  • Sun Cable, the Singapore-based consortium dealing with the world's largest power infrastructure project, aka the $22 billion Australia-ASEAN Power Link (AAPL), disclosed today that it had actually lodged an application with the Northern Territory's Growth Approval Authority for a facility in the region's capital, Darwin.

The stated center will manufacture Maverick solar array systems designed by Sydney-based company 5B which consists of renewable resource professionals.

The AAPL project makes up the building of a 14 GW solar farm and also around 33 GWh battery power storage system near Elliot in the Barkly Region of the Northern Territory. Plans are for the power generated at the farm to be exported to Singapore through HVDC cables, besides domestic use. 5B's prefabricated, pre-wired Maverick system makes it possible for faster and more affordable release than what standard solar setups can complete. Sun Cable informed that the first stage of the recommended production center will pilot a semi-automated assembly line which will provide possibilities to provide various other solar farms across northern Australia with the Maverick solar array systems.

Phase two, it claimed, will certainly make up the center's growth to produce systems for the AAPL as well as develop a logistics and also circulation centre to ensure that material and equipment can be moved by rail to Sun Cable's proposed 14 GW solar farm site on a 12,000-hectare site at Powell Creek. A statement discussed, "This application is a vital action in the ongoing growth of the Australia-ASEAN Power Web Link (AAPL); a solar energy infrastructure network that will certainly offer Darwin as well as Singapore with competitively valued, dispatchable, high volume sustainable electricity from 2026 and also 2027 specifically."

The consortium is intending to develop the Maverick manufacturing plant in Darwin's East Arm Business Park considering that the place is close to Darwin port, Alice Springs and Darwin Railway Station. The project will likely supply power to the Darwin region and also to Singapore through a 4,500 km high-voltage direct-current transmission network, including a 750-kilometre overhead transmission line from the solar farm in Powell Creek to Darwin as well as a 3,800 km submarine cable from Darwin to Singapore, using Indonesia. The sustainable electrical energy generation of this project, accorded with Major Project Status, is expected to power more than 3 million homes a year.

The advancement application is an important moment in this significant undertaking by Sun Cable which intends to start building and construction right away after monetary close in October 2023 and open industrial procedures in 2027. The company asserts that the 70-year, $26 billion project would certainly create around 1500 jobs throughout construction and also 350 jobs throughout operations. "It will certainly inject $8 billion right into the neighborhood economy as well as create over $1 billion in exports per annum. The stipulation of renewable energy to the NT will support the establishment of sustainable advancement precincts and also power brand-new low discharges manufacturing businesses," its statement said.

Sun Cable Chief Executive Officer David Griffin has shown in previous meetings that the consortium seeks to establish more projects like the AAPL, possibly also in India. A 450 GW target set for 2030 implies that a solar power project of this scale could be feasible below also.


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