AAPowerlink is a proposed electric infrastructure in the Australian outback. After completion, it will be the world’s largest solar power plant. The plant’s first aim is to link Singapore and Australia and provide Singapore with nearly 20 gigawatts of power. Moreover, this energy will be exported to Singapore through a 4,200-kilometer cable that will travel under water.
While AAPowerlink is one of the biggest steps in the renewable and clean energy industry and its distribution, the power plant has met with adversities.
Although the design received major project status from the Australian government in 2019, the project never really got forward. Moreover, it nearly fell through completely without any progress in early 2023. However, after a consortium bought the company Suncable Energy, the project got a second wind. Today, AAPowerlink is fully on course and is expected to be operational by 2030.
The power plant’s name stands for Australia-Asia Powerlink. While the plant firstly will start with Singapore, the next stage is to give power to Indonesia and then most likely to other Asian countries.
The proposed location for the plant is the Northern Territory of Australia, or as everyone calls the Outback. The Outback is a remote heartland in the country consisting of multiple deserts. Although it is the largest area in the Australia, fewer than 5% of the whole population live in it. One thing about the Outback is that it receives constant sunlight which the AAPowerlink wants to turn into solar power.
Australia is one of the largest producers and exporters of coal and has the third largest reserves of coal in the world. However, the owners of the project believe that the future of energy is not in coal but in the renewable, safer, and cleaner energy.
The ultimate goal of AAPowerlink is to provide the countries in Asia which do not have a lot of sunlight or sufficient land to benefit from solar power. Through the project, both Australia and Asia may be the biggest examples for the use of clean power in the world.
