SunCable’s flagship Australia-Asia Power Link project has obtained its principal environmental approval from the Northern Territory Government and NT Environment Protection Authority.
This approval allows us to progress the development, commercial, and engineering activities required to advance the project to Final Investment Decision.
The project presents a unique opportunity for the NT to be at the forefront of this global shift through the development of its world-class renewable energy resources to supply customers in Darwin and Singapore with 24/7 green electricity.
The AAPowerLink is the world’s largest renewable energy and transmission project in development and is projected to be one of the largest economic industrial developments in Australian history.
SunCable Australia’s Managing Director Cameron Garnsworthy said this decision is a major milestone that provides significant momentum to the project.
“This approval allows us to progress the development, commercial, and engineering activities required to advance the project to Final Investment Decision targeted in 2027,” said Garnsworthy.
“AAPowerLink presents a unique opportunity for the Northern Territory to be at the forefront of this global shift through the development of its world-class renewable energy resources to supply customers in Darwin and Singapore with 24/7 green electricity.
“This will underpin a new wave of green industrial development in the NT, via prospective projects that include green minerals, hydrogen, e-fuels, and data centres.”
The project seeks to develop the world’s largest renewable energy precinct in the Barkly region of the Northern Territory.
Over two stages of development, it aims to deliver up to 4GW of 24/7 green electricity to green industrial customers in Darwin (900MW in Stage 1 and a further approximately 3GW in Stage 2), and 1.75GW to customers in Singapore via a 4,300km subsea cable.
A Final Investment Decision (FID) is expected in 2027, with electricity supply to commence in the early 2030s.
The environmental approval covers a significant portion of SunCable’s AAPowerLink project infrastructure, which includes:
The solar generation and utility-scale storage site at Powell Creek with generation capacity of up to 10GW;
An approximately 800km High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) overhead transmission line running from the solar precinct to Murrumujuk, north-east of Darwin;
The Darwin converter site, which includes the terminal location for the transmission line and will convert electricity from HVDC to High Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC) for connection to Darwin, before being converted back to HVDC for transmission to Singapore; and
Subsea HVDC cable from the Darwin Converter Station to the end of Australian territorial waters to the Indonesian border.
The project is expected to deliver more than AUD $20 billion in economic value to the Northern Territory during the construction period and first 35 years of operation.
In the NT, the project will support an average of 6,800 direct and indirect jobs for each year of the construction phase, with a peak workforce of 14,300.
SunCable submitted its initial referral to the NT Environment Protection Authority in 2020 and has been working constructively with the regulator and the Territory and Commonwealth Governments to satisfy the conditions of the approval.
The environmental approval allows SunCable to pursue its next phase of development, which includes:
Determining the best avenue for supply of industrial-scale green electricity to customers in Darwin (Middle Arm);
Continuing negotiations of Indigenous Land Use Agreements (ILUAs) with Traditional Owners across the project footprint;
Development of a second generation site to enable supply of up to 4GW to Darwin customers over two stages of development;
Further investigation into adding wind generation into project to drive down the levelized cost of energy for customers; and;
Development of renewable generation and energy storage, and further refinement of the transmission infrastructure to optimise the overall AAPowerLink system.
SunCable’s AAPowerLink project had held Major Projects Status with the NT Government since 2019, and Commonwealth Government since 2020.
Infrastructure Australia has assessed the project as Investment Ready on its Priority Initiative List.
