Billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes on Thursday laid out plans to advance a renewable-energy megaproject that aims to supply power to Singapore from a northern Australia solar farm after completing a deal to buy the assets from administration.
Cannon-Brookes’s Grok Ventures said due-diligence efforts on SunCable, which entered voluntary administration in January, found “a deep pool of reputable prospective offtakers” for the Australia-Asia Power Link project that proposes an undersea line spanning more than 2,600 miles. To date, SunCable has received expressed interest of roughly six times its first supply to Darwin and more than 1.5 times its supply to Singapore, Grok Ventures said.
SunCable entered voluntary administration amid disagreements among investors over the future direction of the project and its funding structure. Cannon-Brookes, the co-founder of Nasdaq-listed software company Atlassian, and Andrew Forrest, billionaire founder of iron-ore miner Fortescue Metals Group, were both major investors and seeking control of the project. Cannon-Brookes secured control in May.
Grok Ventures said it is well-financed to move ahead with key development activities.
“Once all milestones are reached and we reach financial investment decision, we have a high conviction that large institutional investors and debt providers will fund the capital expenditure to construct the project,” said Jeremy Kwong-Law, Grok Ventures’ chief executive.
The project will be anchored by what Grok Ventures says is expected to be the world’s largest solar array, to be built in Australia’s Northern Territory. Electrons will be delivered to customers both in Singapore, and in and near the Australian city of Darwin.
SunCable will now prioritize efforts to secure required regulatory approvals, including lodging a submission to the Singaporean Energy Market Authority for an energy-import license later this month, Grok Ventures said.
It will also seek the necessary license from Indonesia’s government to lay subsea cable through its territorial waters, while continuing to progress approvals within Australia from the Northern Territory government and traditional owners of the land where the project will be developed, it said.
