Sun Cable project plots green funding targets

The $35bn Sun Cable project will target superannuation firms and the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility as it seeks to reach financial close by 2024.

A rendering of what Sun Cable says the world’s largest solar farm will look like once built in the Northern Territory. Picture: Sun Cable

The $35bn Sun Cable project – backed by Andrew Forrest and Mike Cannon-Brookes – will target superannuation firms and the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility as it seeks to reach financial close by 2024.

Sun Cable’s Australia-Asia Powerlink scheme, which plans to export green electricity from the Northern Territory to Singapore, has been assessed as investment-ready by Infrastructure Australia with $8bn of investment and $2bn of annual export revenues to start from 2028.

Recognition the world’s largest solar, storage and transmission system was economically viable and set to deliver local benefits would help Sun Cable as it worked to lock in funding over the next 18 months, chief executive David Griffin said.

NAIF “will definitely be a party that we want to approach”, Mr Griffin said. “Obviously I can’t speak for how NAIF will consider that yet, but given its status with Infrastructure Australia, I think it’s a very favourable start.”

An extra $2bn was poured into NAIF earlier this year, taking the total to $7bn for the body tasked with offering loans to suitable projects across the northern half of Australia, including all of the Northern Territory. Some 800MW of green electricity will be provided for Northern Australia from the Sun Cable plant in a bid to boost industrial activity in the region.

The Sun Cable project will deliver 17-20 gigawatts of solar electricity generation and 36-42 gigawatt hours of battery storage, to be developed at Powell Creek, north of Tennant Creek.

A 6.4GW, 800km overhead transmission line will carry power from Powell Creek to Darwin, with a 4200km subsea cable then moving electricity from Darwin to Singapore, where it aims to provide 15 per cent of the Asian nation’s needs.

Sun Cable chief executive David Griffin.

Superannuation funds and export credit agencies are another likely source of finance, Mr Griffin said, given support from a wide variety of lenders would be needed to meet the hefty capital budget for the facility.

“We’re still working through our financing plan to determine what the balance between equity and debt will be. With zero emissions and being long-dated, it is exactly the type of investment that superannuation funds would consider.”

Sun Cable raised $210m of new funding in March to push ahead with its signature clean energy scheme, with fresh funds ploughed in by Mr Forrest and Mr Cannon-Brookes.

A nine-fold increase in wind and solar capacity is required by 2050 to meet the nation’s net zero emissions targets, according to forecasts by the Australian Energy Market Operator.

Helping fill the gap are a bulging list of offshore wind projects as some of the world’s biggest energy players look to grab a foothold in Australia. BlueFloat Energy and Energy Estate on Thursday announced a new 1155MW facility to be located in the Portland West renewable energy zone, located 10km to 30km off the Victorian and South Australian coasts.

“This region has world-class wind resources and a history of successful industrial and renewable energy developments. Our vision includes enabling globally competitive clean forest products and a sustainable fuels hub which stretches from Mt Gambier to Portland,” Energy Estate co-founder Simon Currie said on Thursday.

Separately, the Albanese government will on Friday commit $45m in Australian Renewable Energy Agency funding for the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics at the University of NSW as it seeks to develop better and cheaper solar technologies.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the funding will extend the operations of ACAP’s solar photovoltaic research to 2030 as it develops a new wave of efficient solar technologies.