Sun Cable welcomes Singapore plan to import 4GW of electricity by 2035

Sun Cable has welcomed a commitment from Singapore this week to import up to 4GW of low-carbon electricity by 2035, as the Australian company’s plans to build the world’s largest solar power export project start to firm up.

Sun Cable is behind the development of the massive $30+ billion Australia-Asia PowerLink project in Australia’s Northern Territory, which the company said last week was shaping up to begin construction in late 2023.

The giga-scale solar and battery plans also include a more than 4,000km undersea cable that will pipe renewable energy from Elliott in the NT, to Darwin, and then on to Singapore, where it has been estimated the project could supply up to 15% of Singapore’s electricity needs, starting from 2027.

As it turns out, this amounts to exactly half of the up to 4GW the city-state says it wants to import 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 on Monday, 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 next year.

These plans coincide happily with Sun Cable’s own announcement this week that it is open to expressions of interest from customers in Singapore looking to contract net zero electricity.

The company is also releasing its research on the economic and environmental opportunity from greater grid connectivity in the Asia Pacific region, at the Asia Clean Energy Summit this week, which is being held in Singapore.

“Sun Cable sees an enormous opportunity for Singapore to be a leader in energy transition, leveraging existing technologies in electricity transmission projects, to build Singapore’s access to renewable electricity and support the development of the ASEAN Power Grid,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

“As a tropical low-lying island state which receives regular rainfall, Singapore is particularly vulnerable to environmental threats and its small size means that it must partner with other countries in the region to meet its sustainability targets.

“Australia is a reliable and stable trading partner which receives a higher share of quality solar energy than other countries in the region.”