Australia granted “major project status” to an ambitious A$22 billion (US$15.8 billion) plan to export power from a giant solar farm in the country’s north to Southeast Asia via undersea cable.
The status recognizes the “strategic significance” of the project, which is expected to inject billions of dollars into the economy and create thousands of jobs, Australian Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor said in a statement yesterday.
The Australia-ASEAN Power Link envisions connecting the world’s largest solar farm and battery system in Australia’s Northern Territory to Singapore and Indonesia via a 3,700km undersea cable.
Photo: Reuters
Similar proposals for long-haul, transnational power shipments have been pursued in other regions, including from North Africa to Europe, and from Mongolia to Japan and South Korea.
The high-profile boost by the Australian government contrasts with the relatively muted interest from Singapore, which is expected to be its main customer.
The city-state’s Energy Market Authority in November last year acknowledged that it had met with the project’s developer, Sun Cable Pty Ltd, but has shown little public appetite in the venture.
The authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment yesterday.
Sun Cable has said that the project could supply one-fifth of Singapore’s power needs, helping to reduce its reliance on imports.
The project, which is backed by Atlassian cofounder Mike Cannon-Brookes and Fortescue Metals Group founder Andrew Forrest, plans to start marine survey work from August.
Sun Cable is targeting commercial operations to begin in 2027.
The major project status provides the Sun Cable project with government support that includes a single entry point for national approvals, and assistance with state and territory approvals.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS