SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian software mogul Mike Cannon-Brookes was named chairman on Friday of fresh energy start-up Sun Cable, which is searching for to secure funds for a proposed A$30 billion-plus ($19.3 billion-plus) solar energy export project.
Singapore-based Sun Cable plans to produce solar energy from Australia to Singapore and eventually Indonesia through the world’s longest subsea high voltage cable, linked to a 17-20 gigawatt solar farm, in addition to an energy storage facility of as much as 42 GWh in Australia’s Northern Territory.
Cannon-Brookes, co-founder of project management software maker Atlassian and an investor in Sun Cable since 2019, said he was “thrilled” to take up the role at the corporate, which is yet to interrupt ground on the planned 4,500 km (2,800 mile) undersea cable.
“Australia can and ought to be a world leader in clean energy exports. Sun Cable is on the forefront of constructing Australia a renewable energy superpower,” Cannon-Brookes said in an announcement.
Sun Cable Chief Executive David Griffin pointed to Cannon-Brookes’ experience in “rapidly constructing business to a world scale.”
The project, also backed by iron ore magnate and Fortescue Metals founder Andrew Forrest, received an “investment ready” tick in June from Infrastructure Australia, an independent body tasked with evaluating infrastructure projects.
Construction is planned to start out in 2024 with full operations commencing in 2029.
Capital raising for the project is underway after Sun Cable appointed Macquarie Capital, Moelis & Co and MA Financial Group as financial advisers in July, with the goal of wrapping up in early 2024.
Cannon-Brookes’ environmental activism is making waves in corporate Australia, most recently through his attempt earlier this yr to purchase AGL, Australia’s largest electricity generator, and speed up the closure of AGL’s coal-fired power plants by a decade.
($1 = 1.5567 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Lewis Jackson; editing by Richard Pullin)
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