An Indonesian take on Sun Cable’s Australia-Asia Power Link – the world’s biggest solar, storage and export project – has emerged this week, announced by a joint venture between local solar developer Quantum Power Asia and German renewables outfit, ib Vogt.
The $US5 billion ($A6.75bn) project proposes to export up to 4TWh of renewable energy to Singapore annually, using solar installed over more than 4,000 hectares in the Riau Islands, south of Singapore.
Quantum Power and ib Vogt said on Tuesday that the solar and storage project would be capable of generating more than 3.5GW and storing 12GWh of renewable energy which would be piped to Singapore via an undersea cable.
The project bears a striking resemblance to Sun Cable’s $A30+ billion Australia-Asia PowerLink project in Australia’s Northern Territory, which also aims to export solar power by undersea cable to Singapore, and has been flagged as likely to begin construction in late 2023.
Sun Cable’s solar and storage plans – which have the backing of billionaires Andrew Forrest and Mike Cannon-Brookes – are considerably bigger than the Indonesian proposal, following the September 2021 expansion of the already mind-bending project to 20GW of solar and 36-42GWh of battery storage.
The Sun Cable project’s undersea interconnector would also be the world’s longest – at 4,000km in length – in order to pipe energy from Elliott in the NT, to Darwin, and then on to Singapore, where it has could supply up to 15% of the city-state’s electricity needs, starting in 2027.
Sun Cable late last year named a “powerhouse” of companies to deliver the massive solar PV and battery storage project. Construction, as noted above, is slated to begin in late 2023.
In comments to RenewEconomy on Wednesday, Sun Cable CEO David Griffin said there was plenty of room in the market for both projects, and others, as the renewables-poor and mostly gas powered Singapore moves to decarbonise its grid.
“We don’t see it as competition. It’s a large market, and [the Indonesia project] will just be one of a number of projects that will help power the region in the future,” Griffin said.
Singapore last year formally announced plans to import up to 4GW of clean energy by 2035 – 4GW equates to 30% of the island city-state’s total supply – in a bid to diversify supply and boost energy security.
In a speech at Singapore Energy Week in October, trade and industry minister Gan Kim Yong said the plan was to issue two requests for proposals (RFP) for the 4GW of electricity imports, the first in November and the second in the second quarter of this year.
ib Voigt and Quantum Power, which established Singapore registered entity Anantara Energy Holdings to jointly develop renewable energy in Indonesia and send it to Singapore, responded to the November RFP.
The Indonesia-based Anantara project, which is expected to be fully commissioned in 2032, is expected to deliver about 8% of Singapore’s annual electricity generation.
Anantara has also partnered with Singapore electricity retailer, Union Power, to handle connectivity of imported clean energy and related services to residential, industrial and commercial customers.
The companies said Anantara had already secured a number of corporate offtake agreements with Singapore businesses to supply more than 4TWh a year of imported solar power, to meet their energy needs and achieve sustainability goals in line with RE100 commitments.
A formal joint-development agreement for the Anantara partnership, Anantara’s Memorandum of Understanding with Riau Islands Province, and the agreement between Anantara and Union Energy Corporation were signed on Tuesday in the Indonesian embassy in Singapore. The import licence to Singapore still remains to be secured.
“Should we be successful in being awarded an import licence to Singapore, we will bring up to $US5 billion of capital into Indonesia from Singapore, creating more than 30,000 jobs to build what will become the largest PV-Storage System globally to date,” said Quantum Power CEO Simon Bell.
“It will also contribute significantly to Singapore’s journey towards carbon neutrality.”
Anton Milner, managing director of ib vogt, said the companies were confident they had submitted a compelling proposal.
