Mike Cannon-Brookes Takes Over AAPowerLink Project

• Grok Ventures formally completes the acquisition of SunCable assets in Australia, including AAPowerLink  
• Restructures business into onshore and offshore components to be led by Mark Branson and Mitesh Patel, respectively  
• Lists acquiring requisite licenses in Singapore and Indonesia as immediate priorities  

The world's largest planned solar and storage project Australia-Asia PowerLink (AAPowerLink) is now moving forward under Mike Cannon-Brookes' Grok Ventures, that has now officially become the owner of SunCable's assets, under a new structure and reshuffled leadership.   

SunCable has reorganized the business into the 2 following project streams:  

• Overseen by Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, SunCable Australia will be in charge of the onshore component of AAPowerLink project. It will work on up to 20 GW solar and 42 GWh storage capacity in the Northern Territory, its delivery to Darwin, supplying the offshore component and dealing with 3rd party industrial power consumers. It will be led by Chief Development Officer Mark Branson.  

• SunCable International will act as the offshore component, responsible for the delivery of solar energy from AAPowerLink project to global corporate offtakers in Singapore via subsea cables covering some 4,300 km. in length from Darwin. This will be led by Interim CEO and Chief Operating Officer Mitesh Patel.  

The management has figured its immediate priorities to move the AAPowerLink project as pocketing requisite regulatory approvals in the form of energy import conditional license from the Singaporean Energy Market Authority (EMA). It plans to apply for the same later this month. 

It will also submit a license request with the Indonesian government to lay subsea cables through its territorial waters.  

"Once all milestones are reached and we reach financial investment decision (FID), we have a high conviction that large institutional investors and debt providers will fund the capital expenditure to construct the project," said Grok Ventures CEO Jeremy Kwong-Law.   

Initially, the project will aim for 900 MW to be supplied to large industrial customers in Darwin including to those in the Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct, to encourage green industrial development. To Singapore, it will ship 1.75 GW capacity under phase I.   

SunCable also plans to set up a high voltage (HV) subsea cable manufacturing and testing facility with AAPowerLink as an anchor customer. The business is aimed to supply the cables globally as well.   

Having beat Andrew Forrest to win over SunCable assets, Grok Ventures sees value in the deal which it pins on a 'deep pool' of reputable prospective offtakers (see Grok Bails Out Sun Cable). It says SunCable has received approximately 6x interest for its first supply to Darwin, and over 1.5x its supply to Singapore (reflecting 2.5 GW of customer offtake interest) to date.