Article by John Stensholt and Perry Williams, courtesy of the Australian.
13.06.2025
It is the $40bn project already the subject of a billionaire spat, approval and funding delays, a company falling into administration and that looks to have burnt through $300m of shareholders funds.
Billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes’ SunCable dream is mooted to be one of the world’s biggest solar and battery projects, which aims to turbocharge Australia into a major international clean energy exporter.
It is also considered extremely ambitious, even in usually optimistic renewable energy funding sector circles. In its first iteration, SunCable has plans to deliver 900MW of green power to industrial customers in Darwin by 2033. The project also aims to supply 1.75GW of electricity to Singapore by an undersea cable stretching more than 4000km about three years later.
SunCable is pursuing this strategy after a spectacular fallout just two years ago between Mr Cannon-Brookes and another billionaire in the top dozen of The List – Australia’s Richest 250, Fortescue executive chair and green energy evangelist Andrew Forrest.
SunCable was placed into administration in January 2023 after a dramatic disagreement between its then two high-profile billionaire backers, who clashed over different views on the optimal funding package and strategic vision for the project.
A year earlier, SunCable had raised $210m in new funding to push ahead with its big clean energy scheme, with much of the fresh funds ploughed in by the Atlassian co-founder Mr Cannon-Brookes, and the Fortescue chair.
Forrest’s Squadron Energy would go on to raise concerns that SunCable failed to meet some funding milestones and was spending cash at unsustainable rates.
By 2023, the project was running up to 12 months behind schedule, partly due to delays with Indonesian environmental approvals, and John Hartman, the boss of the Forrest family’s private Tattarang investment group had quit the SunCable board.
Mr Hartman later described the project as “not commercially viable” after undertaking what he said was comprehensive technical and financial analysis.
Grok Ventures, Mr Cannon-Brookes’ investment firm, was planning to invest an extra $60m into SunCable, but that proposal was not agreed to by Squadron, sources said at the time. Squadron put forward a funding proposal for a similar amount but it was not accepted by SunCable’s board. With both Grok and Squadron holding veto rights which effectively cancelled each other’s funding deals, administration followed.
A bidding war eventuated; by May 2023 Mr Cannon-Brookes won out after Mr Forrest – who had by then envisaged using SunCable to generate large quantities of renewable energy to power the manufacturing of green hydrogen – pulled out of the race to rescue SunCable.
“We’ve always believed in the possibilities SunCable presents in exporting our boundless sunshine, and what it could mean for Australia,” Mr Cannon-Brookes said. “It’s time to stretch our country’s ambition.
“We need to take big swings if we are going to be a renewable energy superpower. So swing we will.”
While SunCable has gained plenty of government, export and environmental approvals since then, the big swings for big licks of capital have so far come up empty.
Grok executives reportedly travelled to the US about a year ago and claimed that wealthy American families were “really interested” in backing SunCable.
So far though, there appears to have been no concrete backing from there, and the last three months only lukewarm interest in a $US100m ($153m) capital raising bankers Moelis are currently pursuing.
The project, which plans to include the world’s largest solar plant, battery and longest undersea power cable, would be a defining moment for Mr Cannon-Brookes.
But with doubts increasing over the capital appetite meant to kickstart his dreams, he may need to dig deeper in his own pockets or wait longer to keep the dream going.
