Singapore OKs 4,300km subsea cable for importing electricity from Australia

At $4M per km, a 4,300 km HVDC cable would cost a staggering $17.2 billion to import 1.75 GW of energy. Interestingly, building a Shin-Kori equivalent nuclear plant [1],[2] on a nearby island [3] would be significantly cheaper. If they can afford such a cable, it raises the question of whether it&#x27;s even the best solution in the first place. [4]<p>[1] Aerial view of the plant: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;maps&#x2F;place&#x2F;Kori+Nuclear+Power+Plant&#x2F;@35.3215847,129.2913255,930m&#x2F;data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x356880d77ae3bc29:0x1131ba41efec1672!8m2!3d35.3211251!4d129.290671!16s%2Fm%2F02v_18h?entry=ttu&amp;g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTAxNi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;maps&#x2F;place&#x2F;Kori+Nuclear+Power+Plant&#x2F;@...</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Kori_Nuclear_Power_Plant" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Kori_Nuclear_Power_Plant</a><p>[3] Possible location, suitable by size: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;maps&#x2F;place&#x2F;Lazarus+Island&#x2F;@1.2057214,103.716372,931m&#x2F;data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x31da1ee8b3f07ab9:0x734f010b626b98ce!8m2!3d1.2229878!4d103.8542344!16s%2Fg%2F11cl_599h5?entry=ttu&amp;g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTAxNi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;maps&#x2F;place&#x2F;Lazarus+Island&#x2F;@1.2057214,...</a><p>[4] Singapore is not denying such possibility <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.channelnewsasia.com&#x2F;singapore&#x2F;nuclear-energy-fusion-fission-experts-deployment-timeline-tan-see-leng-parliament-4239546" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.channelnewsasia.com&#x2F;singapore&#x2F;nuclear-energy-fus...</a>

I realize I have next to no understanding on how long distance energy transport works.<p>How does one transport energy over such a long distance ? Wouldn&#x27;t there be massive loss in form of heat due to the fact that cables are not perfect conductor ? I kinda understand that normal cables goes around this by having high-voltage (and needing a transformer to step down the volage for home usage - much safer!), but I assume this is only good for 100s of km. Does that scale up to thousands of km ? Or do they assume that Australia is so energy rich that it doesn&#x27;t matter if there are big losses ?<p>Can we do the same in Europe and put massive solar panels in the desert of North Africa and import the energy northwards ? (I realize this is a super naive approach, and the main problem is energy storage rather than generation)

With all these ships illegally dragging their anchors and damaging under sea communications, I wonder what would happen if they drag over this.

Given how many undersea gas pipelines, fiber-optic cables, etc. have been damaged in recent years, this seems too risky. Even if Singapore had a huge navy (it doesn&#x27;t) keeping all the &quot;accidental&quot; anchor-draggers and sabotage submarines away from 4,300km of cable would be an impossible task.

Not sure how this project makes sense economically. Does Singapore have poor relation with all the countries closer to them?

I do wonder what the politics is that makes this a better deal than, say, Malaysia or Indonesia. Singapore itself is quite close to the equator, and Indonesia spans it.

Which route would such a cable take to Australia?<p>The shortest routes between Singapore &amp; Australia seem to go through Indonesia&#x27;s territorial waters, but there seems to be about 2000 - 3000 km extra involved in order to avoid that.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Territorial_waters_of_Indonesia#&#x2F;media&#x2F;File:ID_TW_EEZ.svg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Territorial_waters_of_Indonesi...</a>

Oddly, considering the massive scale of this project, there’s no mention of projected costs in TFA.

A very big attack surface for a simple sub-marine op...

That is giving a lot of geopolitical leverage to Australia. Singapore will soon become hostage to the aussies every whim.

That&#x27;s a monster of a cable. Wow

Single point of failure

Meanwhile in Australia we suffer frequent brown outs year round and rolling outages in the summer because the majority of the power generated and made available to people is from coal and other unclean sources. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.iea.org&#x2F;countries&#x2F;australia&#x2F;energy-mix" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.iea.org&#x2F;countries&#x2F;australia&#x2F;energy-mix</a>