Australia’s Sun Cable sweetens solar proposition to Singapore, offers up to 40-year offtake

AUSTRALIA’s Sun Cable is willing to sweeten its proposition to Singapore customers with offtake agreements of up to 40 years given volatile energy prices, under its proposed mega project to supply 1.75 gigawatts (GW) of solar power to the city-state via what will be the world’s longest renewable energy subsea cable.

“What’s happened in the last 12 months is that it is very difficult for business to deal with that kind of volatility in prices. And so, we can offer, if they (buyers) want, a 40-year power purchase agreement (PPA) at a fixed price point just to ensure zero volatility in prices... (that) becomes an important selling point,” Sun Cable’s co-founder and chief strategy officer Dr Fraser Thompson told The Business Times in an interview.

“We anticipate PPAs will be in the range of 15-20 years, with a maximum of 40 years. We have had over 50 per cent oversubscribed. So there is real demand – that’s the first proof in the pudding. On the off-taker discussions, the things that they are increasingly focusing on is not just the price, but the volatility,” he added.