Sun Cable backer in talks to add wind to solar mega-project

Tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes’ new partner in the ambitious Sun Cable venture in northern Australia is in early talks with wind power developers about expanding the proposed giant solar farm’s generation mix.

Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, which formed a consortium with Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Ventures to acquire Sun Cable from administrators last month, is assessing whether to include wind turbines in its vision for what could become the world’s biggest renewable energy and battery complex.

David Scaysbrook, Quinbrook’s Australian-based managing partner, has been fielding inquiries from prospective investors and renewable energy providers in Australia and overseas about taking an equity stake or participating in building the mega-project in the Northern Territory.

Sources familiar with the private talks, but not yet authorised to speak publicly about them, confirmed these included “several wind developers who are looking at how they could get involved”.

Cannon-Brookes, the co-founder of software giant Atlassian and one of the country’s richest people, has ambitious plans for Sun Cable to develop the world’s largest renewable energy project near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, an 800-kilometre transmission line to link it to Darwin, and a 4200-kilometre undersea cable to export some of its output to Singapore.

Sun Cable was plunged into voluntary administration earlier this year amid a falling-out between Cannon-Brookes and mining magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest – formerly Sun Cable’s co-lead investors – over funding arrangements and its future strategic direction, including whether to develop the Singapore connection or keep Sun Cable as a domestic-only renewable energy project.

Squadron Energy, part of Forrest’s private Tattarang Group, no longer supported building the cable to link a portion of the project’s renewable energy to Singapore, due to concerns about cost blowouts and doubts about its viability.

Quinbrook, a specialist investor in renewables and storage projects in North America, Britain and Australia, will focus only on the domestic components of Sun Cable’s plans, meaning the project will be broken into stages with a “phased” rollout.