Sun Cable’s giant Australian solar farm gets more cash to send power to Singapore

Tycoons Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew Forrest pump US$152 million into project to export electricity from Northern Territory to Singapore via an undersea cable

Sun Cable said a formal process was under way with the city state’s Energy Market Authority to obtain necessary import licenses

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A floating solar farm in Singapore. Photo: Handout

Published: 10:01am, 14 Mar 2022Updated: 10:12am, 14 Mar 2022

Atlassian Corp. co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes and iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest have committed more cash to a A$30 billion (US$21.9 billion) project to export solar power from Australia’s Northern Territory to Singapore via an undersea cable.

Sun Cable Pty Ltd. completed an A$210 million (US$152 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 company said in a statement Monday. The raising was led by Cannon-Brookes’ investment group Grok Ventures and Forrest’s Squadron Energy.

Sun Cable plans to lay a 4,200km-kilometer high-voltage cable to supply enough electricity to meet 15 per cent of Singapore’s demand from a giant solar and battery complex deep in the Outback. The project also plans to supply power to the northern Australian city of Darwin from late 2026.

The company now has sufficient funding to take it to financial close on the project by the end of 2023, David Griffin, Sun Cable’s chief executive officer, said in a phone interview.

A formal process was under way with Singapore’s Energy Market Authority to obtain necessary import licenses, Griffin said, adding that he expected progress on that front by the end of this year.