Sun Cable

It is feasible the world's most ambitious solar energy generation project will go ahead. But don't expect billionaires Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew ...

[Sign up to the Chanticleer newsletter.](https://login.myfairfax.com.au/signup_newsletter/10170?channel_key=9ME3ACTT4ZYY1fEMfvR2EA&callback_uri=https://www.afr.com) [Tony Boyd](/by/tony-boyd-j67sj)is the Chanticleer columnist. This would surely allow energy from Sun Cable’s solar panels to be diverted to projects in Darwin irrespective of who owns the company. The sale price for Sun Cable will be determined by the progress that has been made under Griffin’s leadership. But if management fails to meet its milestones, this would be the trigger for selling the business. But similar claims were made in March last year when the company raised $200 million from about 10 shareholders, with equal amounts contributed by Cannon-Brookes and Forrest. Cannon-Brookes provided a quote in the Sun Cable press statement indicating he wants to continue to support the project and is therefore a potential buyer of the company out of administration. A third version of events is that Forrest has an incentive to buy Sun Cable out of administration because it would help the prospects for his green hydrogen ambitions in the Northern Territory. The first version is that Cannon-Brookes is a strong supporter of the management team led by David Griffin and wants to back it to the hilt. The second version is that Forrest thinks management has been failing to do its job and that is why the project is running about a year behind schedule. It is difficult to understand why a company such as Sun Cable, which is in the regulatory approval stage of its evolution, is apparently burning through so much cash. Getting to the bottom of these differences is tricky given that the only official explanation is contained in a press release published by Sun Cable after the appointment of administrators Christopher Hill, David McGrath and John Park from FTI Consulting. [the collapse into administration of the $35 billion Sun Cable solar power project](https://www.afr.com/link/follow-20180101-p5cbup) is that its future ownership will not involve both [Mike Cannon-Brookes](https://www.afr.com/person/mike-cannon-brookes-4h6) and Andrew Forrest.

Sun Cable, the company behind the Australia-Asia PowerLink (AAPowerLink) project, has entered into voluntary administration.

David Griffin, founder and CEO of Sun Cable, said: “Sun Cable has made extraordinary progress in developing the AAPowerLink. The installation, planned for Australia’s Northern Territory, was deemed [investment ready](https://www.pv-tech.org/sun-cables-australian-solar-storage-project-deemed-investment-ready/) in June 2022. Sun Cable looks forward to developing and operating the projects to meet this demand.” [sought a trio of financial advisors](https://www.pv-tech.org/sun-cable-appoints-trio-to-find-investors-for-vast-solar-storage-interconnection-project/) – Macquarie Capital, Moelis & Company and MA Financial Group – to advance the multi-gigawatt project to financial close by 2024 and raise more than A$30 billion (US$20.7 billion) of capital required to fund the AAPowerLink project. [raised US$150 million in Series B funding](https://www.pv-tech.org/sun-cables-closes-us150m-series-b-to-fund-its-20gw-australia-singapore-subsea-cable-project/) for the development of the subsea cable project, AAPowerLink, which would feature 17 – 20GWp of solar PV and 36 – 42GWh of energy storage to [supply power to Singapore](https://www.pv-tech.org/australian-power-export-project-will-unlock-solars-potential-developer-sun-cable-says/) via a 4,200km of subsea cables. Despite funding proposals being provided, a consensus on the future direction and funding structure of the company was not reached.

The world's biggest green energy project is in jeopardy after a spat over funding between its billionaire backers, Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew Forrest.

Pictured, a stock photo of the NT It spun the announcement as an opportunity. Pictured, an artist's impression of the solar farm The $30billion project to capture solar power in the Australian outback and send it to Singapore is in jeopardy after a disagreement between its billionaire investors, Mike Cannon-Brookes (pictured left, with wife Annie) and Andrew Forrest Construction on the Northern Territory-based operation, touted as the world's biggest green energy project, was due to begin in 2024. A $30billion project to capture solar power in the Australian outback and deliver it to

One of the world's most ambitious renewable energy projects – the A$30bn ($21bn) Sun Cable plan aiming to pipe solar power from Australia to Singapore – has ...

Sun Cable was ambitious even by the standards of the giant wind, solar and green hydrogen projects currently underway in Australia. The project in its statement said the appointment of administrators “will now unlock a path forward for the company to access additional capital for continued development of its marque project, the Australia-Asia PowerLink and progress the next stage of its development portfolio in a strong market”. [quipped that the plan was “insane”](https://www.rechargenews.com/transition/tycooon-backs-insane-plan-to-pipe-aussie-solar-to-singapore/2-1-677732), and mining billionaire Andrew Forrest – over the next steps for the project and its financing.

Andrew Forrest and Mike Cannon-Brookes failed to agree funding terms for $21bn Sun Cable plan.

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The Northern Territory government is downplaying concerns about the future of the $30 billion Sun Cable project, after the collapse of the company behind ...

It can be resurrected," he said. "It's a substantial project. Mr Buckley said the public could "easily expect" the project to be resurrected "in a new form, in a new corporate structure" and possibly with more foreign government underwriting of the financial and political risks involved. "But we do what we can as the NT government to back in these major investors here in the Northern Territory, because it is a great thing for the territory going forward." In its statement, Sun Cable said the "difficult decision" to enter administration was based on the need to find "additional capital". It is the latest in a string of major economic projects in the NT to come under a cloud, alongside

The company behind an undersea intercontinental renewable power system that would connect Darwin to Singapore, backed by billionaires Andrew 'Twiggy' ...

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It wasn't just the giant egos in the power project. It was economics, engineering and physics too gigantic to stack up.

Selling into the NEM would have been cheaper and less risky than Singapore. A very prudent, Singaporean approach to the problem. It has just opened a second round of tenders for up to 4GW of low-carbon electricity to be supplied by 2035. Repair involves pulling the cable out of the water and inspecting it, like fixing a bike puncture. This is the electricity equivalent of proposing to build a 1000-storey building. Singapore’s renewables ambitions have reignited South-East Asian plans for greater electricity integration kicking around since the end of the 20th century. Describing itself as the “world’s largest solar infrastructure project”, Sun Cable proposed to build around 20 gigawatts of solar generation. A 767 kilometre Viking link between the UK and Denmark is currently under construction. It wanted to supply 15 per cent of Singapore’s electricity from solar farms 5000 kilometres away. Based on Viking’s current cost estimates, Sun Cable’s submarine cable alone would have cost at least $15 billion, probably a lot more. The world’s electricity networks are a spider’s web. Power is generated regionally, and over time these grids have sometimes built transmission to trade power over a few hundred kilometres to their neighbours.

Sun Cable—among Australia's most ambitious solar projects that plans to export electricity to Singapore via a 4200-kilometer submarine cable—has entered ...

Cannon-Brookes has since appointed his nominees to the company’s board in a bid to accelerate the phase out of AGL’s coal-fired power plants. Sun Cable’s decision comes six months after the company attempted to raise funding in July with the appointment of Macquarie Capital and Moelis & Co. In October, the company said it received commitments from potential customers in Singapore. I fully back this ambition and the team, and look forward to supporting the company’s next chapter.” “Whilst funding proposals were provided, consensus on the future direction and funding structure of the company could not be achieved.” The company has appointed FTI Consulting as voluntary administrators.

Singapore, however, has received more than 20 bids from around the region for a contract to supply the city-state with low-carbon electricity, its government ...

[Chris Barrett](/by/chris-barrett-hveam)is the South-East Asia correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via The impact of Sun Cable’s woes may also be felt in Indonesia. “It reminds of the Channel Tunnel between Britain and France,” he said. “A lot of people in Singapore [have] said ‘it’ll never happen’. So that makes the project, in principle, of interest, although its credibility has taken a knock.” It has also signed a deal with Indonesia, through whose waters the 4200-kilometre wire would largely be laid.

The massive trans ocean project with renewable energy at its core was certainly the most ambitious to come out of the private sector in the past 5 years.

But going into Administration might not mean the end of the firm, as it could be the precursor to a restructuring even. Sun Cable was planning to build the world’s largest solar+battery storage complex in the Northern Territory region of Australia, with plans to build an undersea cable across the sea to export power to Singapore as well. Sun Cable, the massive solar developer aiming to build the world’s most ambitious power export project, has gone into administration in Australia.

Sun Cable's Australia-Asia AAPowerLink project aimed to supply as much as 15 per cent of Singapore's electricity as the city-state made the transition from gas- ...

Connect with Emma on [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) And there is no direct link to Sun Cable from Singapore’s Temasek, the state-owned investment manager that’s pledged to invest billions in companies focused on lowering emissions and combatting climate change. One factor that had given some observers pause was the absence of specialist subsea cable construction and engineering firms from AAPowerLink. These concerns may have been partly alleviated in October 2021 when five global heavyweights signed on the AAPowerlink delivery team. [Emma Connors](/by/emma-connors-h0yqhv)is the South-east Asia correspondent. However, there is no purchase commitment from the Singapore government.