Sun Cable’s troubled AUD 30 billion ($20 billion) mega solar and storage project has received a welcome boost, with resources company Tivan announcing that it has signed a deal with the developer for the potential offtake of up to 300 MW of renewable electricity.

Sydney-listed Tivan said it has signed a letter of intent with AAPowerlink Australia Assets, a Sun Cable subsidiary, for the supply of 200 MW to 300 MW of solar-generated electricity. The capacity could be used to power a “state-of-the-art” minerals processing facility to be built in Darwin, Australia.

Sun Cable, which entered voluntary administration in January – following an “absence of alignment” among the shareholders – aims to develop one of the world’s largest integrated renewable energy generation, storage and transmission projects. It will include the supply of up to 800 MW of renewable electricity to Darwin.

The Australia-Asia PowerLink (AAPowerLink) project proposal involves building up to 20 GW of solar and 42 GWh of energy storage in the Northern Territory's Barkley region, along with a 5,000-kilometer transmission network to supply Darwin, Singapore and Asian markets with renewable electricity.

While the future of the AAPowerLink project has been clouded since Sun Cable abruptly entered administration, Perth-based Tivan said its one-year deal with the developer will see it progress commercial and technical discussions towards the potential offtake of up to 300 MW of renewable electricity from the project.

The solar-generated electricity will be used to power a facility to be built at the Middle Arm sustainable development precinct for processing minerals from Tivan’s flagship vanadium, titanium and iron ore project at Mount Peake, being developed about 235 kilometers northwest of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.