SYDNEY, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Australia said on Wednesday

it had given the go-ahead for a A$20 billion ($13.5 billion)

solar project that plans to ship energy from a giant solar farm

in the country's north to Singapore through a 4,300 km (2,672

miles) undersea cable.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said SunCable's

flagship Australia-Asia power link project would help meet

growing demand for renewable energy at home and abroad.

A final investment decision is expected in 2027 with

electricity supply to begin in the early 2030s, according to

SunCable.

The approval comes with strict conditions to protect nature

and the project must avoid the habitat of greater bilby, which

are small rabbit-like marsupials with long floppy ears,

Plibersek said.

Over two stages of development, the project aims to deliver

up to 6 gigawatts of green electricity to large-scale industrial

customers in Darwin, the capital city of Australia's Northern

Territory, and in Singapore.

The approval comes as the centre-left government ramps up

renewable energy projects even as the opposition coalition

proposes building nuclear plants to replace coal-fired power by

2050, in a country where nuclear power is currently banned.

SunCable, owned by billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, said the

approval was "a vote of confidence" in the project.

Cannon-Brookes, the co-founder of tech firm Atlassian ( TEAM )

turned environmental activist, last year said the

project was viable and that outside investors would be drawn to

the project.

"SunCable will now focus its efforts on the next stage of

planning to advance the project towards a final investment

decision targeted by 2027," SunCable Australia Managing Director

Cameron Garnsworthy said in a statement, which did not provide

details of its financing plans.

SunCable said it was in talks with Singapore's energy

regulator on the conditional approval for the project's cable

inter-connector component and with the Indonesian government on

building the cable in its waters.

The project received clearance from the Northern Territory

government and the territory's environment watchdog last month.

($1 = 1.4830 Australian dollars)