SunCable has achieved another major regulatory milestone, receiving approval from the Commonwealth Government for the Australian component of its flagship project, Australia-Asia Power Link (AAPowerLink).
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The project was assessed and approved by the Commonwealth Minister for the Environment and Water under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC).
This follows last month’s environmental approval granted by the Northern Territory Government and NT Environment Protection Authority.
Securing these environmental approvals underpins development of the Australian infrastructure required to supply electricity to new green industries in the Northern Territory, and to export this green power to Singapore.
The EPBC Act approval signifies the Australian Government’s confidence that SunCable can deliver this nationally important project within appropriate approval conditions.
AAPowerLink is one of the largest energy infrastructure projects to ever receive an EPBC Act approval, covering a project footprint approximately 2,000km long from the heart of the Northern Territory, extending to the Australian and Indonesian maritime border.
Over two stages of development, the AAPowerLink project aims to deliver up to 6GW of 24/7 green electricity to large-scale industrial customers in both Darwin and Singapore via a 4,300km subsea cable.
The AAPowerLink can create multiple new export industries for Australia by enabling new green industrial development in the Northern Territory, and via subsea transmission of renewable electricity.
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.
It has the potential to provide transformational intergenerational change for Traditional Owners in the Northern Territory.
The project will support an average of 6,800 direct and indirect jobs for each year of the construction phase in the Northern Territory, with a peak workforce of 14,300.
A Final Investment Decision (FID) on the project is expected in 2027 with electricity supply to commence in the early 2030s. ■