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Environmental Clearance For World’s Largest Planned Solar & Storage Project

Australian Federal Government Approval Paves Way For SunCable’s AAPowerLink Project To Move Forward

After the NT government, Australia’s federal government has now provided environmental approval to SunCable’s AAPowerLink project. (Photo Credit: SunCable)

Key Takeaways

  • SunCable’s AAPowerLink Project has obtained environmental approval from Australia’s federal government 

  • It will enable the project to work on realizing an initial phase with up to 4 GW energy supply to Darwin, and 2 GW to customers in Singapore 

  • FID is expected in 2027, followed by commercial operations scheduled to begin in the early 2030s 

Australia’s Environment and Water Ministry has given environmental clearance to SunCable’s Australia-Asia Power Link (AAPowerLink) project that’s envisioned to host up to 20 GW of solar PV and 42 GWh of battery storage capacity. SunCable said this paves the way for the next phase of development for the project that aims to deliver industrial-scale electricity to customers in Darwin and Singapore.   

The approval covers the generation site located at Power Creek, a transmission line that will extend up to Darwin, and a subsea cable that extends out to the Australian-Indonesian maritime border.  

SunCable’s Managing Director Cameron Garnsworthy said, “We're looking to supply up to four gigawatts of energy to Darwin based companies, industrial, green industrial companies on a 24/7 basis, and we're looking to supply a further two gigawatts to customers located in Singapore.” 

Approved under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC), the project is now considered a ‘nationally important project,’ said SunCable. This approval comes after 4 years of extensive assessment and public consultation with stakeholders around Australia, shared Garnsworthy.    

The AAPowerLink project secured environmental clearance from Northern Territory Government and NT Environment Protection Authority (NT EPA), covering up to 10 GW of solar and utility-scale storage capacity on site (see AAPowerLink Gets Principal Environmental Approval).  

Following these approvals, SunCable is now targeting 2027 to report a Final Investment Decision (FID) with electricity supply commencing in the early 2030s.  

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