10,000 square kilometers: a huge Australian solar farm is to supply Singapore with electricity

The title “largest solar farm in the world” has been passed on regularly in recent years. Because the cheaper the solar power became, the more it pays to build ever larger systems. In the north of Australia, however, completely new standards could be set once again. There, an area of ​​10,000 square kilometers is to be equipped with solar modules on a former cattle station in the outback. The area is ideal for such use: it is very flat and there are rarely clouds in the sky. In addition, the area is located near a railway line. This makes it easier to transport the materials needed for construction. If everything goes

according to plan, the first work on the solar farm should start in 2023. Electricity production could then start three years later.

Singapore has so far relied almost exclusively on natural gas

When fully expanded, the system will then have a capacity of ten gigawatts. The electricity produced is initially transported to the city of Darwin via overhead lines. This is where it is fed into the national power grid. The project is also interesting because only a third of the electricity produced actually remains in the country. The rest is exported to Singapore via submarine cables. As a result, a fifth of the electricity demand there could be covered by solar energy. That would be a huge step forward. Because so far the city-state has been extremely dependent on fossil fuels. Currently 95 percent of the electricity supply is based on the combustion of natural gas. Solar energy, on the other hand, only plays a subordinate role due to the limited space available.

There have already been similar ideas in Europe

In doing so, Australia and Singapore are implementing an idea that has existed for a long time in one way or another: countries with high demand for electricity and rather bad weather imported solar power from countries with more favorable climatic conditions. In Germany, for example, there was already the idea of ​​getting solar power from the Sahara. The large-scale Desertec project ultimately failed because of too many unanswered questions. In the meantime, the focus has shifted a bit. Now there is a discussion about using solar power from the desert to produce green hydrogen - and then exporting it to Europe. Australia and Singapore, on the other hand, do without this intermediate step and export the electricity directly. If the project proves successful, it could serve as a blueprint for other countries.