11 January 2023 – Sydney, Australia

Sun Cable Pty Ltd (“Company”) has made the difficult decision to enter voluntary administration. The voluntary administration process will now unlock a path forward for the Company to access additional capital for continued development of its marque project, the Australia-Asia PowerLink (AAPowerLink) and progress the next stage of its development portfolio in a strong market.

Christopher Hill, David McGrath and John Park of FTI Consulting have been appointed as voluntary administrators of the Company. The administrators have not been appointed to any of the Company’s subsidiaries. The Administrators intend to work with the Company’s management team and key stakeholders to determine appropriate next steps for the business. This will likely involve a process to seek expressions of interest for either a recapitalisation or sale of the business.

The appointment followed the absence of alignment with the objectives of all shareholders. Whilst funding proposals were provided, consensus on the future direction and funding structure of the company could not be achieved.

Sun Cable continues to represent an outstanding strategic opportunity to operationally deliver the largest renewable energy project in the world, with the AAPowerLink project to supply power to the Northern Territory and Singapore, commencing late this decade. Sun Cable currently has a portfolio of a further 11 GW of proposed projects, which is equivalent to over 3 times that of the AAPowerLink.

Major milestones in the development of the AAPowerLink, include:

• October 2022: Announced that Sun Cable is 50% over-subscribed for offtake interest in Singapore, having received Letters of Intent for ~2.5GW, versus planned supply of ~1.75GW.
• November 2022: Identification in the Northern Territory of offtakers with around 30GW of renewable electricity demand, resulting in scope for further projects to be developed to serve this demand.
• Government & regulatory approvals: 
  – 2019: Major Project Status from the Northern Territory Government
  – 2020: Major Project Status from the Australian Government
  – 2021: Placed on the National Infrastructure Priority List in Australia and deemed ‘Investment Ready’ by Infrastructure Australia
  – September 2021: Indonesia announces preliminary route approval for the subsea cable.
  – 2022: The Solar Project (Australia-Asia PowerLink) (Special Provisions) Act 2022 enacted, providing strong regulatory guidance and facilitation for the project in the Northern Territory.

Founder and CEO of Sun Cable, David Griffin said:
“Sun Cable has made extraordinary progress in developing the AAPowerLink. This project remains well placed for completion. As we have progressed our work, the demand for delivering reliable, dispatchable 24/7 renewable energy in the NT and the region has risen materially. Sun Cable looks forward to developing and operating the projects to meet this demand.”

Chair of Sun Cable, Mike Cannon-Brookes said:
“Sun Cable has achieved so much since it was founded in 2018. I’m confident it will play a huge role in delivering green energy for the world, right here from Australia. I fully back this ambition and the team, and look forward to supporting the company’s next chapter.”

11 January 2023 MEDIA STATEMENT – PDF

For all further enquiries, please contact:
Shane Murphy
Strategic Communications
FTI Consulting
0420 945 291
shane.murphy@fticonsulting.com

Sun Cable has achieved a significant development milestone for the Australia-Asia PowerLink (AAPowerLink), having recently lodged the Supplement to the Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) with the Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority. This is a significant step towards developing the AAPowerLink, which will support decarbonisation and realise opportunities for the Northern Territory’s economy and communities.

This will be assessed under the Northern Territory’s Environment Protection Act 2019 and an Accredited Assessment Process under the Commonwealth’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999.

The lodgement of the SEIS follows a Territory-wide consultation campaign that took place from April 2022 to October 2022, to support the draft EIS, and took place in Darwin, Adelaide River, Pine Creek, Katherine, Elliott and surrounding communities, including Tennant Creek and Alice Springs.​ The campaign enabled community and stakeholder feedback, which was fed back into project design alongside further environmental studies.

Sun Cable respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Custodians throughout Australia and pays respect to their elders past and present.

The SEIS is on public exhibition from 7 December 2022 to 31 January 2023. The full SEIS report is now available at the Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority website: https://ntepa.nt.gov.au/consultation/open-consultations. Sun Cable invites NT stakeholders and communities to provide feedback and engage with our Darwin-based team. Please email us at info.nt@suncable.energy.

18 November 2022 – Sydney, Australia

• Sun Cable has completed a successful series of meetings and events in Bali, hosted by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (KADIN) and Indonesian Government, as part of the B20/G20 2022 Leaders Summit.
• Sun Cable’s Australia-Asia PowerLink has been listed in the 2022 G20 Presidency’s List Action for Strong and Inclusive Recovery. The list includes concrete actions, projects and initiatives aimed to advance international collaboration in order to recover together, recover stronger.
• On Friday 11 November, Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) and Sun Cable signed a Memorandum of Understanding, committing to policy and technical program development ahead of Indonesia’s ASEAN Chairmanship in 2023.
• On Monday 14 November, KADIN and Sun Cable signed a Memorandum of Understanding to improve opportunities for Indonesia’s renewable energy development, including by supporting Indonesia’s efforts to establish a new green industry and supply key services in the renewable energy supply chain. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese mentioned Sun Cable during his speech at the B20.
• On Tuesday 15 November, Sun Cable and ESDM released preliminary findings of a Joint Study to realise the benefits of Green Industry development in Indonesia, identifying five key Green Industries that could add up to USD115 billion (IDR1,600 trillion) to Indonesia’s GDP by 2035. Sun Cable met with Minister Arifin to launch this Joint Study and discuss Sun Cable’s long-term commitment to Indonesia.

Sun Cable’s participation in the B20/G20 2022 Leaders Summit included high profile engagement with senior government officials and private sector leaders, further advancing Sun Cable’s standing as a world leading player in large scale dispatchable renewable energy.

A key theme was the way in which the top 20 global economies should approach decarbonisation, justly and fairly, while improving inclusive and equitable growth.

Inbound investment into Indonesia was core at all meetings. In particular, the benefit of downstream and upstream value-adding of nickel, tin and copper was discussed in the context of the new and renewable energy potential in Indonesia, and development of green industrial estates, as Indonesia is transforming its economy beyond reliance on raw commodities.

Friday 11 November – B20 Investment Forum and Indonesian Net Zero Summit
Sun Cable joined the B20 Investment Forum and Indonesian Net Zero Summit, together with more than 900 attendees. Indonesia’s Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia spoke about investment into Indonesia, showing that over 2019-2021 Australia had dropped off the top 10 foreign direct investors by country origin list. Singapore remained number one.

Sun Cable Indonesia President Director Tim Anderson and Senda Hurmuzan Kanam signed a Memorandum of Understanding to formalise Sun Cable’s relationship with the Energy Ministry (ESDM) in Indonesia, witnessed by Minister Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, Minster Bahlil Lahadalia and KADIN leadership on the main stage. The MOU formalises collaboration between Sun Cable and ESDM to advance opportunities for renewable energy generation and transmission within Indonesia.

Saturday 12 November – BloombergNEF Summit
Sun Cable participated in the BloombergNEF Summit and met with key government and business leaders from Indonesia, Australia, the United States and Europe, including participating in a roundtable focused on Indonesia’s transition and pathway for grid interconnection.

Sunday 13 November – B20
Sun Cable Founder and CEO David Griffin joined the B20 panel discussion on ‘Investing in green ventures for sustainable growth’ alongside panellists from Petronas, Enel Group and Rafako, moderated by Eco-Business, to an audience of approximately 3,000 delegates.

Monday 14 November – B20
KADIN and Sun Cable signed a Memorandum of Understanding formalising an agreement to improve opportunities for Indonesia’s renewable energy development, committing to: look for ways to work together to enable Indonesia to unlock its renewable energy potential; support Indonesia’s efforts to establish itself as a strategic green manufacturing hub and to supply key services in the renewable energy supply chain, and; promote closer cooperation between Sun Cable and Indonesian companies under KADIN to position Indonesia as a powerhouse in green industry and renewable energy.

Tuesday 15 November – G20
At the start of the G20, Sun Cable and ESDM released preliminary findings of a Joint Study to realise the benefits of Green Industry development in Indonesia, identifying five key Green Industries that could add up to USD115 billion (IDR1,600 trillion) to Indonesia’s GDP by 2035.

The pathway includes working through the key potential areas for generation, defining the resources available, identifying the key energy intensive locations and industries, and then building a plan to unlock these opportunities. The five key industries identified by the study are: mining and minerals processing (e.g. green nickel production); energy and fuels (e.g. green hydrogen); transport manufacturing (e.g. electric vehicles); food processing and agriculture (e.g. green fertilisers); and IT infrastructure (e.g. green data centres).

Sun Cable Indonesia President Director Tim Anderson attended the G20 Welcome Dinner hosted by President Joko Widodo and attended by all G20 Leaders.

G20 Leaders Summit

Sun Cable’s Australia-Asia PowerLink has been listed in the 2022 G20 Presidency’s List Action for Strong and Inclusive Recovery. The list includes concrete actions, projects and initiatives aimed to advance international collaboration in order to recover together, recover stronger.

Within the G20 Bali Leader’s Declaration, AAPowerLink is one of 26 projects and initiatives on the Energy List:

“Sun Cable’s Australia-Asia PowerLink (AAPowerLink), is a proposed renewable energy infrastructure system. The system would incorporate the world’s largest solar array and storage system, and intercontinental transmission, to deliver renewable electricity to Darwin and Singapore. The AAPowerLink is also forecast to potentially inject a total of USD 2.5 billion into the Indonesian economy over the life of the project.”

Quotes attributed to Sun Cable Founder and CEO David Griffin:

“Sun Cable is honoured to partner with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources as it shapes Indonesia’s policy and technical program for grid connectivity. We are looking to share Sun Cable’s expertise in solar energy generation and long distance transmission with Indonesia as it shapes its policy and technical approach to inter-island connectivity.”

Quotes attributed to Indonesia’s Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif:

“Energy infrastructure is very important to connect the centers of great energy production to centers of high energy consumption. Thus, Indonesia is planning to build a super grid to address mismatch between renewable energy resources and the location of high electricity demand areas as well as maintaining the electricity system stability and security.” Quotes attributed to Indonesia’s Ambassador to Australia H.E. Dr. Siswo Pramono: “Indonesia has some of the best renewable energy resources in Asia and many of the core capabilities to become a green industry powerhouse: access to a large workforce, access to critical mineral resources, access to renewable resources, and a strategic location at the heart of regional growth. This collaboration between ESDM and Sun Cable shows the commitment to optimise those potentials and to support our effort towards energy transition.”

Quotes attributed to Prime Minister of Australia Anthony Albanese:
“I had the pleasure to meet with global and Australian business leaders at the B20, reaffirming the need to work collaboratively across government and industry.¹

When I came to Indonesia in June, I was joined by a large delegation of government ministers and senior business leaders: the head of the Business Council of Australia; the CEO of Commonwealth Bank; and representatives of major companies such as Wesfarmers, Fortescue, Bluescope, Sun Cable and Thales. All of them left here energised by the tremendous opportunities this nation and this region hold. And this B20 gathering, bringing together influential business leaders from around the world draws on that same spirit.”²

Download Media Release PDF
FINAL_SC_221116_Media Release_B20:G20 wrap up

Media enquiries: media@suncable.energy
Company contacts: Megan Taylor, Chief of Communications and Marketing Georgie Skipper, Chief Corporate & Government Affairs Officer Deb Russell, Head of Communications
Media Assets: https://suncable.sg/assets

¹ Source: https://www.pm.gov.au/media/g20-summit
² Source: https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;page=0;query=Source%3A%22PRIME%20MINISTER%22%20b20%20speech;rec=0;resCount=Default

Sun Cable

Sun Cable’s mission is to supply renewable electricity from resource abundant regions to growing load centres, at scale.

This starts with the Australia-Asia PowerLink (AAPowerLink), which will use Australia’s abundant solar resource to power Darwin and Singapore with large volumes of competitively priced and dispatchable renewable electricity while also driving significant long term economic benefits for Indonesia. The AAPowerLink project is the first of its kind and the first of many.

In October 2021, Sun Cable formed an Integrated Project Delivery Team (IPDT) to deliver the AAPowerLink. This is a leading global consortium, consisting of Bechtel (Project Delivery), SMEC (Solar Generation System), Surbana Jurong Group, Hatch (HVDC Transmission), Marsh (Risk Management), PwC Australia (Project Advisory) to provide a powerhouse of expertise to deliver this giga-scale, complex project.

In June 2022, Infrastructure Australia affirmed the economic merit of Sun Cable’s Australia-Asia PowerLink project, advancing the project to Stage 3 ‘Investment-ready’ status on the Infrastructure Priority List.

Advances in renewable energy generation, energy storage and HVDC cable transmission technologies have made it commercially and technically viable to transmit dispatchable, renewable electricity over long distances.

Sun Cable’s energy projects will position Australia, Singapore and Indonesia as world leaders in cross border renewable electricity trade. The developed infrastructure will facilitate large-scale industrial development through the electrification of new and existing industries, provide significant supply chain opportunities and support regional decarbonisation.

Sun Cable has offices in Brisbane, Darwin, Melbourne, Jakarta, Singapore and Sydney.

Australia-Asia PowerLink Project

The Australia-Asia PowerLink (AAPowerLink) will be the world’s largest solar generation site at 17-20 GW, the world’s largest battery energy storage system at 36-42 GWh and the world’s longest subsea cable transmission system at 4,200km.

AAPowerLink will be capable of supplying 800 MW of capacity to Darwin and up to 15% of Singapore’s total electricity needs. AAPowerLink has the following components:

• Solar Precinct with 17-20 GWp solar generation and 36-42 GWh energy storage to enable 24/7 dispatchable electricity near Elliott, Northern Territory.
• HVDC Overhead Transmission Line which will transmit electricity from the Solar Precinct to the Darwin region. Capacity from the transmission system will then be split for delivery to Darwin and Singapore.
• From Darwin, HVDC subsea cables will transmit ~2 GW of electricity ~4,200km to Singapore, largely through Indonesian waters.

The AAPowerLink will position Australia, Singapore and Indonesia as world leaders in cross-border renewable electricity trade. The infrastructure will facilitate large-scale industrial development through electrification of industries, provide new supply chain opportunities, and support regional decarbonisation.

Sun Cable Founder and CEO David Griffin speaking at the B20

MOU Signing with Chairman of KADIN
(L-R) Sun Cable Indonesia President Director Tim Anderson, Sun Cable Chief Government and Corporate Affairs Officer Georgie Skipper, Sun Cable Founder and CEO David Griffin, Chair of KADIN and Head of B20 Indonesia Arsjad Rasjid, IABC National President and APTISI Vice Chairman Global Engagement George Iwan Marantika, Vice Chairman of KADIN and Chair of B20 Steering Committee Bernandino Vega.

MOU Signing between Sun Cable and ESDM at B20 Investment Forum
(L-R) Sun Cable Indonesia President Director Tim Anderson and Head of BBSP KEBTKE Senda Hurmuzan Kanam.

ESDM Joint Study Signing and Launch
(L-R) Sun Cable Head of External and Government Affairs Indonesia Wafi Chalid Abdat; Sun Cable Chief Government and Corporate Affairs Officer Georgie Skipper; Sun Cable Founder and CEO David Griffin; Sun Cable Indonesia President Director Tim Anderson; ESDM Director General of New, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Dadan Kusdiana; Indonesia’s Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif; ESDM Secretary General Rida Mulyana.

David and Minister Arifin shaking hands with Joint Study

FINAL_SC_221112_Media Release_MOU with ESDM

SC_G20-2022_WhitePaper_The_Green_Komodo

25 OCT FINAL AGGN Media Release

FINAL SC_220704_Media Release_Sun Cable appoints Macquarie and Moelis as Joint Financial Advisers

FINAL SC_220624_Media Release_Sun Cable’s Australia-Asia PowerLink deemed investment ready by Infrastructure Australia

SC_220607_Media Release_Sun Cable CEO David Griffin joins Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the Australian Government’s international business delegation to Indonesia

Sun Cable has achieved a significant development milestone for the Australia-Asia PowerLink (AAPowerLink), having recently lodged the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) with the Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority. This is a significant step towards supporting decarbonisation and realising opportunities for the Northern Territory’s economy and communities.

This will be assessed under the Northern Territory’s Environment Protection Act 2019 and an Accredited Assessment Process under the Commonwealth’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.

The EIS details environmental, economic, social and cultural outcomes that may result from the AAPowerLink, both directly and indirectly. This includes the following areas.

• culture and heritage (cultural values, heritage sites) 
• biodiversity (plants and animals, threatened species) 
• surface and groundwater (creeks, waterholes, billabongs) 
• soils (waste, contamination, erosion) 
• people’s health and quality of life from traffic, noise, dust, visual impact  
• marine environment 
• social and economic impacts (accommodation, housing, community cohesion, jobs, economic benefits) 

Sun Cable has prepared an Environmental Impact Statement Summary with the key EIS impacts and mitigations for the AAPowerLink available here: AAPowerLink Environmental Impact Statement Summary

Sun Cable respectfully acknowledges the traditional custodians throughout Australia and pays respect to their elders past and present.

The EIS is on public exhibition from 20 April to 15 July 2022. The full EIS report is now available at Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority website: https://ntepa.nt.gov.au/consultation/open-consultations 

Sun Cable invites NT stakeholders and communities to provide feedback and engage with our Darwin-based team. Please email us at info@aapowerlink.sg

Sun Cable has completed a AUD210 million Series B capital raise with existing shareholders, Grok Ventures and Squadron Energy (a wholly owned subsidiary of Tattarang), to fund the development work of the Company’s marquee project, the Australia-Asia PowerLink. and accelerate the progress of the Company’s portfolio of multi gigawatt generation and transmission projects.

Sun Cable Series B Capital Raise Media Release