Australian billionaires who are keen to invest are advancing into another field: After buying ore deposits, cattle farms or pharmaceutical companies, they are now financing the world's largest private solar energy factory.

For around 22 billion Australian dollars (13.3 billion euros), a plant is being built in the north of the fifth continent that will later supply the south-east Asian city-state of Singapore, some 4,000 kilometers away.

Christoph Hein

Business correspondent for South Asia / Pacific based in Singapore.

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The plan called Suncable is reminiscent of the failed Sahara Desertec project, which was supposed to supply Germany with electricity.

The then Siemens boss Peter Löscher once described it as the "Apollo project of the 21st century".

But this Apollo rocket never ignited.

Years later, however, there is more and more evidence for the Australians' plans. 

The solar farm “down-under” should have a capacity of at least 10 gigawatts - if it were to produce around 40,000 gigawatt hours of electricity, this could be enough to supply 10 million households.

For comparison: At the beginning, Desertec, in which Siemens, Eon, Deutsche Bank, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Reconstruction Loan Corporation (KfW) were involved, wanted to deliver one million gigawatt hours.

However, several plants are now to be built in Australia: the “Asian Renewable Energy Hub” (AREH) in the vast, western Australian ore region of Pilbara could also supply Indonesia.

The hybrid system will generate electricity from the sun and wind.

The Western Australian government supports the plan that came up in 2014.

In the long term, the plant should have a capacity of 26 gigawatts and, above all, support domestic hydrogen production.

In the north, the Australians actually want to build their “solar farm” on a former farm site.

On a good ten thousand square kilometers between Alice Springs, known for Ayers Rock, and Darwin, the capital of the north, Kerry Packer, the father of billionaire James Packer, who has recently hit the headlines, grazed his cattle.

A bet with Elon Musk 

The future operators are proud that their systems can even be seen from the spaceship. Industry Minister Karen Andrews spoke of making her country the "leader in the world market". The project was initiated by, among others, the green internet billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew Forrest, who earns his living with ore deliveries from western Australia. He brings most of the billions into a foundation that is also heavily involved in humanitarian causes.

Cannon-Brookes is known not only because he and his college friend brought the Australian SAP called Atlassian to the stock exchange. But also because he made a bet with Tesla owner Elon Musk on Twitter to persuade him to build a huge battery for electricity storage in southern Australia in record time. On Monday it became known that he is co-financing a company founded in a garage in Sydney that wants to replace the necessary - expensive - silver with copper in solar panels.

The conservative and coal-friendly government under Prime Minister Scott Morrison granted the project "project status" in the summer.

While at the same time extending the lifespan of coal-fired power plants and wanting to use gas as a “transitional energy”.

According to energy minister and coal enthusiast Angus Taylor, the solar system is of "strategic importance" for Australia.

Is there enough electricity left in your own country?

However, there are cautionary voices: Not only because earlier large-scale projects such as Desertec or a connection from Mongolia to North Asia failed, but also because there is a submarine connection between the island of Tasmania and the mainland, the 370 km long "Basslink", problems arise. And finally, the hardened ministers of Northern Australia are urging that, above all, enough electricity be left in their own country.