Mike Cannon-Brookes has confirmed his commitment to the $30 billion Sun Cable mega project — a plan to send renewable energy from Australia to Singapore via a 4,200-kilometre underwater cable.
Originally placed under voluntary administration in January, transition of the project’s ownership from former minority partners, Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew Forrest, is now complete.
Cannon-Brookes and Forrest had originally been competing shareholders, both seeking full control of Sun Cable. Forrest has since dubbed the export project as unviable, while Cannon-Brookes remains aligned with its original vision.
Cannon-Brookes' private investment firm Grok Ventures has gained full ownership, under which Sun Cable will split into two streams: Sun Cable Australia, supervised by Grok’s partner Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, with a focus on the onshore project, while Sun Cable International will be responsible for the cable to Singapore.
Engineering challenges and sovereign risks
Under the current blueprint, Sun Cable will establish Australia's largest solar farm near Tennant Creek and connect it to Darwin via an 800-kilometre, 6.4-gigawatt overhead transmission line.
Additionally, 36-42 gigawatt hours of battery storage will supplement the energy. The first stage will supply 900 megawatts of electricity to Northern Territory's Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct, with a further 1.75 gigawatts to be sent to Singapore.
But Sun Cable’s plan to send renewable energy from Australia to Singapore through a 4,200 kilometre underwater cable has garnered scrutiny as critics question the feasibility of such an extensive subsea link and potential risks related to Indonesian territorial waters.
But Cannon-Brookes defends the project's integrity saying, "We’ve long believed in the technological viability of this as a solution”.
Future milestones
Jeremy Kwong-Law, CEO of Grok Ventures, expressed high confidence in the project's financial prospects. Sun Cable will begin producing high-voltage cables for the Darwin-Singapore link upon Singaporean regulatory approval. Sun Cable needs to secure a licence to import renewable energy into Singapore, an application for which will be submitted shortly.
Grok is believed to be targeting first power to Darwin by about 2030 and to Singapore in the early 2030s, although a revised target for first phase construction has not been set.
The Sun Cable project could mark a pivotal moment in Australia's green energy sector and its international energy relations, contingent upon overcoming engineering and regulatory challenges.