Cannon-Brookes to chair Sun Cable, lead world’s biggest solar and battery project

Sun Cable, the developers of what will be the world’s biggest solar and battery storage project, have named tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes as the company’s new chair, in the latest boost to the massive venture’s momentum.

The company told RenewEconomy that Cannon-Brookes has been chair since 18 July, and that it always intended to appoint a chair as the company grew.

The Australia-Asia PowerLink proposes to build up to 20GW of solar near Elliott in the heart of the Northern Territory, and 42GWh of battery storage, providing clean energy for new Darwin green industry and to Singapore through a 4,200km sub-sea cable.

The huge project already had the financial backing of Cannon-Brookes, alongside another of Australia’s richest men, iron ore magnate and green hydrogen whisperer Andrew Forrest.

Now, Sun Cable can also tap Cannon-Brookes’ seemingly bottomless drive for progress on decarbonisation, that has so far help to deliver the world’s first grid connected Big Battery in South Australia, and a major pivot away from fossil fuels by AGL Energy.

“I’m thrilled to play a part in what Sun Cable is doing. Australia can and should be a global leader in clean energy exports. Sun Cable is at the forefront of making Australia a renewable energy superpower,” Cannon-Brookes said in a statement.

“The Australia-Asia PowerLink is a world scale infrastructure project. It will unlock incredible value for all countries involved, work to decarbonise three major economies and transform how giga-scale solar energy gets built.”

Sun Cable founder and CEO David Griffin called Cannon-Brookes a “visionary leader whose demonstrated passion and commitment for the energy transition strongly aligns with Sun Cable’s mission”.

“Mike’s experience in rapidly building business to a global scale is invaluable as we progress to deliver our marquee project, the Australia-Asia PowerLink, and accelerate development of our portfolio of multi gigawatt generation and transmission projects,” he said.

A big job ahead

Sun Cable aims to begin construction on the AAPLink in 2024, complete financial close by the start of 2024, start supplying 800MW of electricity capacity to Darwin in 2027, and to be in full operation – helping to power Singapore – by 2029.

“The Australia-Asia PowerLink is a long term investment in energy resilience and decarbonisation, at scale,” Griffin said in a statement in July.

“With generation, transmission, and storage technology, and engineering that is proven across each  interconnected aspect of the operation, we have the economies of scale needed to deliver zero emission dispatchable electricity with reliability and price stability.”