Australia is one step closer to sending clean energy to Asia after two major investors joined a push to get an unprecedented solar farm project underway.
Billionaires Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest have both invested "tens of millions" into the Sun Cable Solar project, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald. The project involves constructing the world’s largest solar farm, to supply competitively priced electricity to the Darwin region and to Singapore via a 4,500-kilometre high-voltage cable.
The farm will be built on 15 000 hectares near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, with a 10-gigawatt capacity and 22-gigawatt per-hour storage plant. It's believed the funding injection will enable the company to pay for development work for the power link.
The Sun Cable project is led by CEO David Griffin, an entrepreneur and former general manager for development at Infigen Energy. Mr Griffin told SBS News in August the project is not simple, and requires a lot of investment and research, with construction expected to begin in 2023.
“It’s an extremely complex problem that we are solving. There are risks associated with that [undersea cable] and that’s why it’ll take a long time to go through the entire design process," he said.
He said the additional funds will allow the company to work through environmental and regulatory approvals.
Mr Cannon-Brookes, the co-founder of software firm Atlassian, said in a statement that Australia should be a leader of clean energy, and the project has the potential to create significant growth for the Australian economy.
“If we nail this, we can build a new export industry for Australia, create jobs and set our economy up for the future," he said.
Once construction begins on the project, it’s estimated it could take four years to complete.
