Grant King tapped for clean energy play

afr.com:

Grant King, the chairman of the Commonwealth’s Climate Change Authority and HSBC’s Australian operations, has joined the top ranks of a private Sydney clean energy company run by the former Australian head of US private equity firm KKR.

North Harbour Clean Energy appointed Mr King to the independent chairman post following his early investments and advice to the company since its inception in 2019, the company said.

Grant King with then-prime minister Scott Morrison in 2019.  Wolter Peeters

“We are excited to add Grant to our board alongside our independent directors Robert Hill AC and Allison Warburton, as we continue to focus on delivering on-demand, carbon-free electricity to Australia,” the company announced. Mr Hill is a former federal defence and environment minister. Ms Warburton was previously an Australian Energy Market commissioner.

Mr King’s appointment by North Harbour adds to his chairmanships. He already heads the board at carbon-offset company GreenCollar and Sydney Water. Mr King, the former boss of Origin Energy and the Business Council of Australia, was appointed by the Morrison government to chair the Climate Change Authority in April 2021.

North Harbour Clean Energy is run by Tony Schultz, a former managing director of KKR Australia. Mr Schultz set up the company to target investments in large batteries and pumped hydro, known as “long duration storage”, which stores solar-powered electricity when it’s cheap during the day and dispatches it when the grid needs it.

North Harbour is particularly focused on smaller pumped hydro projects and vanadium redox flow batteries. Vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) are a battery technology that has been left languishing in favour of lithium-ion. But proponents