I have never understood the Sun Cable business model. Why send so much solar power so far at such an enormous cost in capex and energy waste, when it can be directed inwards at a fraction of the cost and still make excellent profits?
Moreover, if decarbonisation is the goal then it will do a lot more good supplanting coal here than gas in Singapore.
Perhaps that is the real reason why it has collapsed:
A fall out between two of the nation’s richest men has led to the abrupt implosion of the $30bn Sun Cable project, one of the world’s biggest solar and battery projects which had aimed to turbocharge Australia into a major international clean energy exporter.
Sun Cable was placed into administration on Wednesday after a dramatic scrap between its two high-profile backers – Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew Forrest.
It sets the scene for the businessmen to compete for control of the development, known as the Australia-Asia PowerLink.
The two billionaires clashed over different views on the optimal funding package and strategic vision for the project based in the Northern Territory, which would have sent power from Darwin to Singapore with a 4200km cable.
It doesn’t take Sigmund Freud to imagine the scale of the egos at work here. So it is easy to conceive of many reasons why the project has foundered.
If it is placed in administration, the Australian Government should buy it.
The planned PV and battery set-up is only 1200kms from the extant National Electricity Market transmission infrastructure in SA.
It is half an hour behind the east cost so could pump power at peak periods on the duck curve for maximum profitability.
And it is a 24-hour-per-day renewable/battery operation so can also be firming power as needed at all other times.
Sun Cable is nearly one-third of Australia’s electricity capacity. In a stroke, it would wipe out coal power and virtually eliminate the gas cartel.
Therein lies the problem.
