Andrew Forrest and Mike Cannon-Brookes — Australia’s loudest climate change billionaire — have invested an additional $ 210 million in the world’s largest intercontinental renewable energy system.
Suncable’s $ 30 billion Australia-AsiaPowerLink project has already received nearly $ 50 million from Forest and Cannon-Brooks in 2019 through their respective investment companies, Squadron Energy and Grok Ventures.
When completed, AAPowerLink will break numerous records, including the world’s longest high-voltage cable carrying 3GW (gigawatts, or 1 billion watts) over a 4,200 km submarine cable from the Northern Territory to Singapore.
It is 35 times larger than Central Park in New York and is powered by 17-20 GW of solar power (almost comparable to Australia’s total solar capacity of 25 GW) in an area of 12,000 hectares. ..
The project plans to build a 36-42 GWh (GWh) battery storage system to maintain power for all periods. This can cost between $ 10 and $ 15 billion at current prices alone.
The project hopes to supply up to 15% of Singapore’s electricity demand by submarine cable. However, with the maximum rated power of the cable, 3 GW, the same battery can only output for 12 to 14 hours.
Forrest said an ambitious mission would put Australia at the forefront of the green energy transition.
“Suncable’s vision will be the world’s leading generator and exporter of renewable energy, transforming Australia’s ability to enable decarbonization,” Forrest said in a statement.pdf).
“I am proud to be the underlying investor for Sun Cable, its team, and its vision. This funding is an important step in developing PowerLink in Australia and Asia. We commend Sun Cable for fulfilling this mission. “
Cannon-Brooks also believes that AAPowerLink can lay the foundation for future energy export projects.
“This brings Australia one step closer to realizing the export potential of renewable energy. We can power the world with clean energy, and Sun Cable is leveraging it on a large scale. “I will.”
“This is a blueprint for how we export energy to the world. We fully support this vision.”
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel supports the theory of humanity’s impact on climate change (IPCC) temperatures. However, structural bias in IPCC data selection has raised concerns among critics about the hypothesis of anthropogenic climate change narratives.
Both Forest and Cannon Brooks have shown great interest in keeping energy away from carbon dioxide because of concerns that gas can cause climate change.
To this end, Forest has led a number of green energy projects, including a partnership with Airbus to study hydrogen planes with the largest renewable energy hub in the Southern Hemisphere.
Meanwhile, Canon Brooks instead opted to take a more direct route by acquiring AGL Energy, one of Australia’s largest energy suppliers, and attempting to close coal-fired power plants sooner. Did.
However, the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine raises concerns that its dependence on renewable energy will make it even more dependent on gas. Gas plays an important role in supporting renewable energy by burning in light winds and sunlight.
However, some experts believe that battery power remains inadequate to support renewable energy. For example, AAPowerLink’s 12-14 hours, 3 GW battery can drain after a cloudy day.
“They have a role to play, but not a big grid,” Iven Mareels, a professor of engineering at the University of Melbourne, told The Epoch Times. “You can’t build enough batteries to store for the grid.”
There is also growing concern that the rapid spread of renewable energy is causing slavery, and the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has warned Australian companies to report the risks of slave labor in the supply chain. I am.
“The move to renewable energy has revealed many areas of new modern slavery supply chain risk for energy companies,” said AHRC.
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Daniel Khmelev is a Perth-based Australian reporter working on energy, technology and politics. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, physics and computer science. Contact him at [email protected]