Mike Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Ventures has announced it is splitting the massive SunCable Northern Territory to Singapore solar power project into two streams.
The total project has been estimated to cost more than $30 billion.
SunCable Australia will develop what is expected to be the world’s largest solar farm. This will deliver green electricity to Darwin and surrounding areas for domestic and industrial use as well as making power available for the planned SunCable undersea power cable to Singapore. This project will be overseen by Australia-based global renewable energy investment firm Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners.
Quinbrook said it was providing a range of development services to Grok and SunCable, including in the areas of prospective customer engagement, project construction, and operations. Quinbrook had rights to make a substantial equity investment into the onshore projects.
SunCable International will work on the undersea power link – Australia-Asia Power Link (AAPowerLink).
Details of the project and closing of the transaction, under which Grok has taken full control of SunCable, were announced on 7 September.
Cannon-Brookes said: “SunCable’s AAPowerLink project has all the component parts to make the next great Australian infrastructure initiative possible. It will create more local jobs and support our green manufacturing and renewable energy industries. It’s set to deliver huge volumes of green energy to Darwin – powering a burgeoning green industry opportunity in the NT.”
He said the project offered huge upside to Australia, Singapore and Indonesia and SunCable looked forward to working with partners across Asia to drive it.
According to Grok, AAPowerLink will be able to deliver around 6GW of firmed renewable energy over multiple stages.
Over the first stage, it is intended that at least 900MW of power will be retained in Australia while 1.75GW will be delivered to Singapore via the undersea cable.
The retained power will be available for supply to large industrial customers including those in Darwin’s Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct. Grok expects the availability of competitively priced around-the-clock power to underpin a new wave of green industrial development in the Northern Territory. This will support local jobs and the growth of sustainable industries in areas such as hydrogen electrolysis, critical minerals processing, e-fuels and green data centres.
Over time, it is planned that an additional 3GW of renewable power will be made available to customers in the Darwin area, capacity that will be a key component for Australia to reach the ambition of becoming a renewable energy super power.
Grok Ventures chief executive Jeremy Kwong-Law said the firm was highly confident that the separate projects will receive capital support as milestones are reached.
SunCable’s immediate priorities are to progress regulatory approvals for the AAPowerLink. SunCable plans to lodge a submission later this month (September) to the Singaporean Energy Market Authority to gain an energy import conditional licence. The company is seeking to support the Singapore government’s stated objective of importing at least 4GW of low-carbon power by 2035.
According to Grok, its due diligence on the SunCable acquisition showed that there is a “deep pool” of reputable potential customers for the power it plans to generate. The company said it had received expressions of interest for about 6x its planned initial supply to Darwin and around 1.5x its planned supply to Singapore – equivalent to customer offtake interest in 2.5GW.
SunCable is also engaging with the Indonesian government to obtain permission to lay its planned subsea cable through its territorial waters, and with the Australian government to support all its projects.
The company says it is also continuing to advance key authorisations and approvals with the Northern Territory government and traditional owners of the project area, including Powell Creek where the solar farm will be located.
In addition to the AAPowerLink project, SunCable plans to establish an advanced high voltage subsea cable manufacturing and testing facility, with AAPowerLink as the initial customer. SunCable is in discussions with established manufacturers of subsea cables to jointly develop, construct and operate this facility.
The cable plant will require substantial investment and is expected to create 800-1,000 direct jobs during its construction phase. Once the plant is established, it is expected to continue to provide advanced manufacturing employment for more than 400 people. SunCable plans that the plant will not only provide cable for the AAPowerLink project but also for other projects globally, including planned offshore wind electricity generation projects in Australia.
Image: The planned course of the AAPowerLink.