Atlassian CEO Mike Atlassian Cannon-Brookes’s plan to pipe electricity from Australia to Singapore has been approved by the land down under’s government.
The scheme, known as the Australia-Asia Power Link (AAPowerLink), envisions creation of a 12,000 hectare (46 square mile) solar farm in a remote part of Australia’s Northern Territory.
That facility will be capable of generating up to six gigawatts of electricity, and accompanying batteries will mean the juice flows 24/7. An 800km cable will connect the solar farm to the city of Darwin – pop. ~140,000 – which will consume around 4GW of the energy produced.
Much of the remainder will be dispatched into a 4,300km submarine cable linking Darwin to Singapore. The island nation will rely on the project for over ten percent of its energy consumption.
Cannon-Brookes’s personal investment vehicle, Grok Ventures, owns SunCable – the venture developing AAPowerLink.
SunCable welcomed government approval, and the government celebrated the project. Minister for the environment and water Tanya Plibersek hailed the project as the world’s largest solar energy precinct and Australia’s biggest renewable energy project.
The scale of the solar farm is daunting but not insurmountable. The 800km transmission line to Darwin is also not terrifying, as it will share a rail corridor and is therefore accessible. It’s also not very long, as such things go.
The underwater component, however, has its critics – among them Australian entrepreneur Bevan Slattery, who has extensive experience building submarine data cables. Slattery has argued that the Darwin-to-Singapore route passes through some of the world’s most dangerous waters on account of high levels of tectonic and volcanic activity. He’s also concerned about the huge amount of shipping that passes near the proposed route, noting “70+ cable repairs within just 70km of Singapore being recorded.”
Transmission loss is another issue. Over the span of a 4,000km-plus cable Slattery feels much energy will be lost – making solar farms closer to Singapore probably more cost effective, in Slattery’s estimation.
Another critic is Cannon-Brookes’s former partner in the venture, mining billionaire Andrew Forrest, who prefers to use giant solar farms to produce hydrogen for export and use in H-powered electricity generators.
Forrest walked away from SunCable after he and Cannon-Brookes couldn’t find common ground.
The Atlassian founder now has official backing for his preferred plan.
Now all he has to do is fund it, build it, and confound his critics. All while helming Atlassian solo after the departure of co-founder Scott Farquhar. ®
