Atlassian Corp. co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes and iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest have committed more cash to a A$30 billion ($21.9 billion) project to export solar power from Australia’s Northern Territory to Singapore via an undersea cable.
Sun Cable Pty Ltd. completed a A$210 million Series B capital raising with existing shareholders to accelerate the progress of the Australia-Asia PowerLink, as well as other projects in its portfolio, the company said in a statement Monday. The raising was led by Cannon-Brookes’ investment group Grok Ventures and Forrest’s Squadron Energy.
“This brings Australia one step closer to realizing our renewables exporting potential,” Cannon-Brookes said in a statement. “We can power the world with clean energy and Sun Cable is harnessing that at scale.”
Cannon-Brookes has been a vocal campaigner for the clean energy transition in Australia, which still gets around 60% of its power from coal, teaming up with investment giant Brookfield last month in a failed bid for generation company AGL Energy Ltd. The partners had planned to accelerate the closure of AGL’s coal-fired plants and replace them with renewables.
Forrest is looking to transform his iron-ore empire into a major clean energy producer over the next decade, and has been scouring the planet for opportunities to invest in renewables and green hydrogen projects.