Atlassian CEO's idea to build 4,000-kilometer extension cord plugged in
- Reference: 1724218330
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/08/21/suncable_atlassian_ceo_approved/
- Source link:
The scheme, known as the Australia-Asia Power Link (AAPowerLink), envisions creation of a 12,000 hectare (46 square mile) solar farm in a remote part of Australia's Northern Territory.
That facility will be capable of generating up to six gigawatts of electricity, and accompanying batteries will mean the juice flows 24/7. An 800km cable will connect the solar farm to the city of Darwin – pop. ~140,000 – which will consume around 4GW of the energy produced.
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Much of the remainder will be dispatched into a 4,300km submarine cable linking Darwin to Singapore. The island nation will rely on the project for over ten percent of its energy consumption.
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Cannon-Brookes's personal investment vehicle, Grok Ventures, owns SunCable – the venture developing AAPowerLink.
SunCable [4]welcomed government approval, and the government [5]celebrated the project. Minister for the environment and water Tanya Plibersek hailed the project as the world's largest solar energy precinct and Australia's biggest renewable energy project.
[6]Atlassian softens its cloud-first approach for remaining on-prem customers
[7]After 13 years, Atlassian delivers custom domain names for Jira
[8]Gas pipeline players in talks to fuel AI datacenter demand
[9]US standards body proposes atomic clocks in lunar orbit to keep Moon time
The scale of the solar farm is daunting but not insurmountable. The 800km transmission line to Darwin is also not terrifying, as it will share a rail corridor and is therefore accessible. It's also not very long, as such things go.
Meanwhile, at Atlassian Atlassian on Tuesday delivered its [10]August patch bulletin , which listed nine CVEs for its Bamboo, Jira, Confluence, and Crowd products. The worst of the bunch are rated 8.1 and relate to a dependency on VMware's Spring Framework rather than Atlassian's own wares.
The underwater component, however, has its critics – among them Australian entrepreneur Bevan Slattery, who has extensive experience building submarine data cables. Slattery has [11]argued that the Darwin-to-Singapore route passes through some of the world's most dangerous waters on account of high levels of tectonic and volcanic activity. He's also concerned about the huge amount of shipping that passes near the proposed route, noting "70+ cable repairs within just 70km of Singapore being recorded."
Transmission loss is another issue. Over the span of a 4,000km-plus cable Slattery feels much energy will be lost – making solar farms closer to Singapore probably more cost effective, in Slattery's estimation.
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Another critic is Cannon-Brookes's former partner in the venture, mining billionaire Andrew Forrest, who prefers to use giant solar farms to produce hydrogen for export and use in H-powered electricity generators.
Forrest walked away from SunCable after he and Cannon-Brookes couldn't find common ground.
The Atlassian founder now has official backing for his preferred plan.
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Now all he has to do is fund it, build it, and confound his critics. All while helming Atlassian solo after the [14]departure of co-founder Scott Farquhar. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZsW6xXWlSz1sq7b5zonn9AAAAIM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZsW6xXWlSz1sq7b5zonn9AAAAIM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[4] https://www.suncable.energy/news/suncable-receives-major-commonwealth-government-environmental-approval-for-flagship-project
[5] https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/plibersek/media-releases/albanese-government-gives-environment-approvals-australias-biggest-renewable-energy-project-ever
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/05/atlassian_q4_2024/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/19/atlassian_cloud_custom_domains/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/11/pipeline_operators_ai_demand/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/nist_lunar_orbit_clocks/
[10] https://confluence.atlassian.com/security/security-bulletin-august-20-2024-1431535667.html
[11] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sun-cable-bold-vision-bevan-slattery/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZsW6xXWlSz1sq7b5zonn9AAAAIM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZsW6xXWlSz1sq7b5zonn9AAAAIM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/26/atlassian_q3_2204/
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
That doesn't add up
"That facility will be capable of generating up to six gigawatts of electricity, and accompanying batteries will mean the juice flows 24/7"
OK, so that means an output averaged across a 24 hour period of about 2GW. Assuming that such a large amount of battery storage is affordable (it's not; But that's the least of the problems here), 6GW peak output implies about 2GW averaged across a 24 hour period, because night time is a thing even in the Northern Territory. A 33% capacity factor is very generous for solar power.
Darwin will, we hear, consume 4GW, leaving minus 2GW to sell to Singapore. Perhaps those undersea cables aren't needed after all.
Or perhaps the idea is that Darwin will use 4GW only during peak output (seems dubious - last time I was in Darwin, I ran the a/c at night, and I am sure I wasn't the only one). But in that case, only 2GW are available to charge batteries, and only about 670MW are available 24/7 to sell to Singapore. Assuming zero transmission losses, and zero cloudy days (even in the desert, that's a rash assumption).
Now, this does also assume 100% efficiency when charging/discharging the batteries; But given the entirely fictional nature of these batteries, and indeed of the rest of the project, why not?
Aussie politicians aren't known for their technical expertise. They'll buy this snake oil without hesitation.
Re: That doesn't add up
If you do the math at 20% efficiency, that surface means about 2400000000 W at peak throughput. So, your big calc on 24h means 6GW to 2GW - and your correction of the article? Might be more convincing if you had done the groundwork before figuring the writer hadn't. They did: 24GW to 6GW. Which still seems overgenerous but nothing like your overcorrection.
Re: That doesn't add up
"That facility will be capable of generating up to six gigawatts of electricity" strongly implies that 6GW is the peak output. If the facility is capable of generating 24GW, why not say so?
I'm still wondering where all those batteries are going to come from. Increasing peak generation makes the battery problem worse, not better.
Re: That doesn't add up
https://www.power-technology.com/projects/australia-asia-powerlink-australia-singapore/
Admittedly 2 years old:
"a solar farm, with a capacity ranging between 17GW and 20GW"
"a battery energy storage system, with a capacity between 36GWh and 42GWh"
"supply approximately 3.2GW of dispatchable electricity a year to Singapore"
Poor use of units in the last quote. Wikipedia says the long cable is capable of 2.2GW.
I thought this project was quietly dying as backers had been pulling out due to the company having issues getting approval for the cable route through all the various territorial waters.
Re: That doesn't add up
Because it's grid connection is likely 6GW...
will be dispatched into a 4,300km submarine cable
My word, that's going to be a bright fibre! Now protect your remaining eye --->
Solutionism at its worst
Instead of proposing a large-scale syn-fuel plant that could produce synthetic hydrocarbons for energy storage and trade, potentially below market rates, magical thinking is used to propose a technically far more demanding project with am uncertain outlook. It's so revolutionary that it will need massive government subsidies to succeed.
Singapore probably can't produce all its power from solar parks, but it can probably rely on off-shore wind for most of the rest: its latitude means it's unlikely to need to worry about a dunkelflaute in winter. In addition, it can easily partner with Malaysia for additional resources. Or, it could go for a single and very long connection to an intermittent source…
Re: Solutionism at its worst
Partnering with Malaysia is problematic, not easy. You should see the lengths they are going to to secure their own fresh water supply that isn't reliant on Malaysia.
It's going the wrong way
Pity he doesn't send it to the East coast of Australia, which is running out of power and pays more for it than Singapore.