Plans to use a 4,200km power cable to send clean energy from Australia to Singapore are no longer commercially viable, according to one of the project’s billionaire investors.
A review of Sun Cable’s A$30 billion ($27.71 billion) proposals concluded the project should ditch an ambition to export electricity and focus instead on using a huge planned solar and battery facility to feed green industries at home, according to Andrew Forrest’s Squadron Energy unit — which holds a 25% stake in the developer.
Sun Cable entered into voluntary administration last week after a disagreement between Forrest and tech tycoon Mike Cannon-Brookes over funding and the plans to send clean power overseas. Forrest is considering a potential offer for the company, a person familiar with the details said last week.
“Squadron Energy continues to believe in the vision for a game changing solar and battery project in the Northern Territory’s Barkly region,” Squadron Chairman John Hartman said. The unit — Australia’s biggest renewables developer — is focused on helping the country “become a green energy exporting superpower by generating renewable energy to produce green hydrogen and green ammonia”.
There has been widespread industry scepticism over the wild ambition of the Sun Cable plans, which include proposals to build the world’s largest solar farm and a giant battery facility and then export electricity to Singapore via a high-voltage undersea cable that is more than five times longer than major existing connectors like the Norway-to-UK North Sea Link.
Forrest is seeking to transform his Fortescue Metals Group, a key global iron ore supplier, into a major producer of green metals and an exporter of clean hydrogen. Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries aims to start producing 15 million tons a year of green hydrogen from renewable generation by 2030.
See also: Singapore solar cable project wins lifeline to carry on building
In March 2022, Sun Cable completed a A$210 million Series B capital raising with existing shareholders to accelerate the progress of the Australia-Asia PowerLink, as well as other projects in its portfolio. The raising was led by Cannon-Brookes’ investment group Grok Ventures and Forrest’s Squadron Energy.
Sun Cable's plans to lay a 4,200km high-voltage cable from a giant solar and battery complex deep in the Outback had been touted to supply enough electricity to meet 15% of Singapore’s demand. The project also planned to supply power to the northern Australian city of Darwin from late 2026.
See also: Singapore-based Sun Cable collapses, threatening Australia-Asia PowerLink solar power project
In November 2022, Sun Cable signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Indonesia’s energy ministry, moving closer to its goal to lay an undersea cable connecting a solar farm in Australia’s Northern Territory to Singapore.
Sun Cable’s Indonesia president director Tim Anderson and Indonesia’s Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif announced the formal collaboration at the B20 Investment Forum and Indonesian Net Zero Summit on Nov 11, 2022. Known as the business arm of the G20, the B20 is the official G20 dialogue forum for the global business community.
The collaboration was formalised with an MOU between Sun Cable’s Anderston and Senda Hurmuzan Kanam, the head of BBSP KEBTKE, Indonesia’s study and test centre for electricity, new and renewable energy and energy saving.
Photo: Sun Cable
