Sun Cable sounds out federal government fund for Tasmania solar plant

afr.com:

Mike Cannon-Brookes’ Sun Cable venture has begun discussions with the federal government’s $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund about support for a cable-manufacturing plant in Tasmania.

The venture, owned by the software billionaire’s Grok Ventures since an ownership shake-up forced by a decline into voluntary administration, is proposing to manufacture the specialist high-voltage cables it needs for its $40 billion solar power export project to Singapore.

Sun Cable would involve a massive solar farm in the Northern Territory. 

The government fund, the Albanese government’s primary vehicle to revive manufacturing, could provide equity or debt funding for the plant, which would also supply cables for the emerging offshore wind power sector.

However, its investment mandate has yet to be finalised, and it is not expected to be in a position to start inking funding deals until next year.

“With an infrastructure project of this size and importance you would expect us to explore all opportunities for government support in the event that it receives the necessary approvals,” a spokesman for Grok said.

National Reconstruction Fund chairman Martijn Wilder suggested at The Australian Financial Review Energy & Climate Summit in October that the fund could look at a range of projects, from quantum computing and making drones, to hydrogen for green steelmaking and offshore wind turbines. He suggested then that the proposed Sun Cable manufacturing plant could fit within the fund’s remit.

Mr Wilder has said that any investments by the fund also needed to be financially viable and make an economic return.

Sun Cable announced earlier this month that it had selected Bell Bay in Tasmania as the preferred location for its