In a development AUD20 billion (SGD19 billion) in the making, an Australian developer plans to supply electricity to Singapore by building the biggest solar farm in the world.

Transporting electricity over 4,000km

Singapore-based Sun Cable has promised to build a solar farm in Tennant Creek, a desert located in the Northern Territory of Australia (NT), reported The Guardian on July 14, 2019.

The solar farm is intended to occupy 15,000 hectares of land, where an array of solar panels with a total capacity of 10 gigawatts will be located.

A small portion of the electricity generated will be plugged into the NT grid, or transmitted via overhead transmission lines to Darwin, the capital of the NT.

Australia however, is 4,000km away, which might lead some to wonder how the electricity will be transported all the way to Singapore.

Apparently, Sun Cable plans to export the bulk of electricity generated via undersea cables, which will snake their way through the Indonesian archipelago before making their way to the island-state.

The project, 18 months into development, is still in its early stages—Sun Cable with production planned to start middle to late next decade.

Which is a long time away for a proposed development that will apparently take four years before they lock in finances.

The developers also held a launch party last week, as part of a series of events intended to highlight the NT as an area with great potential for solar energy.

The announcement of Sun Cable's project comes on the heels of a recent report by science and policy institute Climate Analytics published on July 8, which labels Australia as one of the worst producers of global carbon emissions.

Ironic considering that Australia is one of the sunniest places on earth, making solar power a given alternative—which perhaps makes Sun Cable's project even more timely.

Greening power in Singapore

Sun Cable has even predicted that the undersea cable will be able to supply one-fifth of Singapore's electricity needs.

Currently, 95 per cent of Singapore's electricity is produced from natural gas, while only 2 per cent comes from solar energy.

It seems that there has been an increased focus on solar power in Singapore recently.

More and more solar panels are to be deployed not just on building rooftops, but over the water as well, such as over reservoirs and the Straits of Johor.

Top photo from Pixabay