Sun Cable backer in $10b tilt at solar panel supply chain
Mike Cannon-Brookes’ investment partner in Sun Cable, Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, plans to build a polysilicon plant in Queensland costing up to $10 billion to supply solar panel manufacturers.
The project would involve a huge solar farm in the outback of the Northern Territory.
Quinbrook is looking for partners with deep pockets as it targets producing some of the world’s greenest polysilicon, competing in a field dominated by Chinese producers. Australia has no polysilicon manufacturing capability but a high demand for solar panels as part of decarbonisation targets set by governments, mining companies and private sector interests.
The project is earmarked for the Lansdown eco-industrial precinct in Townsville and will source silica quartz from the region. Townsville has allocated Quinbrook a 200-hectare site at Lansdown subject to strict development timelines.
Quinbrook director Brian Restall said Lansdown was close to some of the best silica quartz resources in the world.
“We have strong relationships with, and are a major customer of, leading solar and battery manufacturers across the globe – meaning components manufactured here in Townsville will be exported to these leading manufacturers and made into finished solar modules and batteries,” he said.
Quinbrook plans to build a plant powered by a large-scale solar and battery storage project that it hopes to develop on land next to Lansdown.
The aim is to produce polysilicon wafers for use in solar panels as well as battery technology. Silica is more efficient than other minerals at converting light into electricity.
The plant foreshadowed by Quinbrook would be among the world’s largest and first to rely heavily on renewable energy to produce silica. China
Read more on afr.com
