(Bloomberg) — A $20 billion renewable energy corridor connecting Australia and Singapore inched closer to completion after developer SunCable received conditional clearance from the city-state.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Singapore’s Energy Market Authority deemed the project technically and commercially viable, SunCable said Tuesday. The company’s Australia-Asia Power Link plans to send 1.75 gigawatts of renewable electricity to Singapore, or about 9% of its current needs, through a 4,300-kilometer (2,670-mile) submarine cable.

The Australia-based project, controlled by tech billionaire Mike-Cannon Brookes, is one of the most ambitious developments globally to supply energy-hungry customers in Asia that don’t have the available land to generate enough renewable power. It won approval for its first stage in August.

“Conditional approval is a vote of confidence from the Singapore government,” Mitesh Patel, SunCable International’s interim chief executive officer, said in the statement. The company now plans to focus on project planning, talks with industrial customers in Singapore and subsea surveys in Indonesia.

Singapore is also holding talks with Australia and clean energy groups on plans to allow the use of credits tied to cross-border electricity imports, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said Tuesday in a statement.

The nation aims to import 6 gigawatts of low-carbon power by 2035, and is working to study pathways to deliver high-integrity certificates linked to clean power generated outside of Singapore.

Development of a credible framework for the credits would help lift demand for cross-border electricity trading and support investment in renewable projects across the region, the ministry said, without giving a timeline for execution of the proposals.

Use of the certificates has been contentious and opponents have argued they’ve often overstated potential climate benefits.

(Corrects percentage of Singapore’s energy needs after revised statement)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.