With major regulatory approval in, Australia-Asia power link ready for next phase

With major regulatory approval in place, the path has been cleared for the next phase of development for a project that will harness and store renewable energy from Australia and transmit it to Singapore via a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system.

The Australia-Asia Power Link (AAPowerLink) includes the development of what is said to be the world’s biggest integrated renewable energy and battery storage facility in the Barkly region of Australia’s Northern Territory which could over multiple stages have a capacity of up to 6 GW of renewable energy to Darwin and Singapore.

In addition to a 4,300-kilometer HVDC subsea cable, the infrastructure includes the solar generation and utility-scale storage site at Powell Creek with generation capacity of up to 10 GW, a circa 800-kilometer HVDC overhead transmission line running from the solar precinct to Murrumujuk, north-east of Darwin, and the Darwin converter site.

The developer SunCable reported on August 21 that it had received approval from the Commonwealth Government for the Australian component of the flagship project, assessed and approved by the Commonwealth Minister for the Environment and Water under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC).

This follows the environmental approval granted in July by the Northern Territory Government and NT Environment Protection Authority.

SunCable stated that AAPowerLink is one of the largest energy infrastructure projects to ever receive EPBC Act approval, covering a project footprint approximately 2,000 kilometers long from the heart of the Northern Territory, extending to the Australian and Indonesian maritime border.

“SunCable is pleased to receive Commonwealth Government approval under the EPBC Act, following four years of extensive assessment and public consultation with stakeholders around Australia,” said SunCable Australia’s Managing Director Cameron Garnsworthy. “SunCable will now focus its efforts on the next stage of planning to advance the project towards a Final Investment Decision targeted by 2027.”

The company plans to further invest in relevant communities to progress to the next phase, including continuing negotiations of Indigenous Land Use Agreements (ILUAs) with traditional owners in the Northern Territory, and engaging with Singapore’s Energy Market Authority on the conditional approval application for the subsea cable interconnector component and with the Indonesian Government on regulatory and permitting matters to prove the subsea route inclusive of knowledge and hydrographic data-sharing.

The project is expected to deliver more than AUD 20 billion (around USD 13.4 billion) in economic value to the Northern Territory during the construction period and the first 35 years of operation, as well as support an average of 6,800 direct and indirect jobs for each year of construction, with a peak workforce of 14,300.

Electricity supply is expected to commence in the early 2030s.