<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>327204</docID> <postdate>2024-08-21 08:40:13</postdate> <headline>Green light for Australia’s biggest solar farm</headline> <body><p><img class=" wp-image-212280" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/american-public-power-association-513dBrMJ_5w-unsplash-e1724193513419.jpg" alt="" width="858" height="493" /></p> <caption>A solar farm in the Northern Territory is expected to generate 4GW of renewable energy.</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Jack Gramenz</strong></span></p> <p><strong>Australia's biggest solar farm has been approved with the potential to power three million homes, many of them expected to be in another country.</strong></p> <p>The Sun Cable Australia-Asia Power Link is expected to generate 4GW of renewable energy through a solar farm in the Northern Territory.</p> <p>The 12,000-hectare solar farm is bound for a former pastoral station near Tennant Creek.</p> <p>The approval by federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek on Wednesday includes an 800-kilometre transmission line to Darwin and an underwater cable to the end of Australian waters.</p> <p>The project will boost the NT economy as well as elevating Australia's renewable status globally, Ms Plibersek said.</p> <p>"It will be the largest solar precinct in the world – and heralds Australia as the world leader in green energy.</p> <p>"Australians have a choice between a renewable energy transition that's already underway creating jobs and driving down prices; or paying for an expensive nuclear fantasy that may never happen."</p> <p>She said the project would deliver almost six times more power than a 700MW large nuclear reactor could deliver, criticising what she called "an expensive nuclear fantasy" being pitched by the opposition.</p> <p>"We have no idea what the equivalent to (Opposition leader) Peter Dutton's anti-renewables nuclear plan might be because there are no details other than it being too slow and too expensive," she said.</p> <p>The Sun Cable project had early support from billionaires Andrew Forest and Mike Cannon-Brookes, with the latter winning the battle to acquire it after it was placed in voluntary administration in January 2023.</p> <p>The pair had disagreed over whether the project's planned transmission of electricity to Singapore was viable, with Cannon-Brookes confident it was.</p> </body>