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Katie Woolf spoke with Sun Cable CEO David Griffin · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, yesterday we spoke extensively about gas, and today it's
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: all about solar. And many of us have heard about
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: sun Cable Project, a development of a major energy infrastructure
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: project that, once complete, will supply renewable electricity well to
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  Speaker 1: Darwin and the Asian region. The project is going to
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  Speaker 1: integrate three technology groups, the world's largest battery, the world's
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  Speaker 1: largest solar farm, and a four and a half thousand
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  Speaker 1: kilometer high voltage direct current transmission system from the solar
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: storage facility to Darwin, Singapore and eventually Indonesia. To some
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: the projects seems so large and complex that we've been
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  Speaker 1: wondering how exactly it's going to happen. And I understand
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  Speaker 1: that the project did reach a milestone earlier this week
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: submitting referrals to the EPA, the Environmental Protection Authority. Now
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  Speaker 1: joining me on the line to talk more about this
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  Speaker 1: is David Griffin, some Cable CEO. Good morning to you, David.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.
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  Speaker 1: David, thanks so much for joining us on the show
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: this morning. As I mentioned, I understand the project is
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: a step closer with the application being submitted to the
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  Speaker 1: EPA earlier this week.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, that's right, Yeah, this is a significant milestone. As
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  Speaker 2: you say, it's an opportunity to consult with the broader community.
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  Speaker 2: It is the first significant part of the broader environmental
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: impact statement process. So there will be a more comprehensive
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: stage of assessment that will be submitted later next year,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: sorry next year as well.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, and then I guess what are the next steps
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  Speaker 1: because it seems like such a huge project that many
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  Speaker 1: out there listening will be really wondering how exactly and
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: when it's all going to happen.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Well, ultimately we're working through the development process in order
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  Speaker 2: to start construction in October twenty twenty three. We want
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  Speaker 2: to deliver our first electricity to Darwen in the beginning
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  Speaker 2: of twenty twenty six, first electricity to Singapore beginning of
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty seven, and then fully commissioned by twenty twenty eight.
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  Speaker 2: To get to that, to meet those milestones, we've got
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  Speaker 2: a huge amount of what will work get to be done.
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  Speaker 2: But we are well and truly underway. Our submarine survey,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: for instance, that's well and truly commenced. We've surveyed at
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  Speaker 2: this point in time, was surveyed the route from Darwen
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: out the first eight hundred kilometers. We've still got a
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: little less than three thousand kilometers to go on that survey,
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  Speaker 2: but that's all underway, and that's really critical data in
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  Speaker 2: terms of being able to design the border system and
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  Speaker 2: understand the environment that we're operating in. We've been collecting
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  Speaker 2: other baseline data for a long time now. The solar
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  Speaker 2: radiance data obviously is critical a good data set on that.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: And yeah, we've got multiple areas of design engineering underway
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  Speaker 2: as we speak, and yes, it's progressing very well.
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  Speaker 1: And where are things that in terms of seeking approval
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  Speaker 1: from landholders and also traditional owners.
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  Speaker 2: I can't go into commercial arrangements, but we have very
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  Speaker 2: strong support for the project from the past release holder
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: and we are at an early stage with regards to
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  Speaker 2: discussions around an indigenous lang disagreement with nuditional owners.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: And where exactly is the soul of farm going to
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  Speaker 1: be constructed?
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  Speaker 2: We're looking at there's four sites under consideration. They're all
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  Speaker 2: to the west of Lake Woods or southwest of Lake
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  Speaker 2: Woods and southwest of Elliott, so about seven hundred and
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  Speaker 2: fifty colinies south of Darwen.
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  Speaker 1: Excuse me sorry, And has COVID sort of been an
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  Speaker 1: impact for you guys. Has it delayed things in any way?
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  Speaker 1: I know it must be difficult. Well, it's difficult for
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  Speaker 1: so many people, but particularly in the likes of Singapore.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, it has been another challenge that we had
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  Speaker 2: and they navigate around in the end today, it hasn't
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  Speaker 2: really delayed our time frames at all. We just had
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: to find different ways to operate. We've got we've got
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: the team spread over many jurisdictions and fortunately we've never
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: been in a situation where all of the team was
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  Speaker 2: in a COVID lockdown, so we've always had some flexibility
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  Speaker 2: to travel and get the team around where they need
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: to be. And I think that's just the way it's
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: going to be from now. And you need that geographic
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  Speaker 2: diversity to protect yourself from things like that.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: And I know what is being reported that some aspects
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  Speaker 1: of the project will be on the new car Waters Station.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Is that the case?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, on the Newcastle Water's aggregate. Yeah, so on
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  Speaker 2: Newcastle Waters Station proper or on Power Creek is another
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  Speaker 2: part of that station.
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  Speaker 1: And I have got a message from one of our listeners,
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  Speaker 1: Eddie this morning. It says, Hi, Ktie, could you please
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: ask the Sun Cable CEO how are they going to
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: dispose of failed panels.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Are incredibly reliable technology, so they do degrade over time,
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  Speaker 2: but it's a highly predictable rate of degradation. After fifty years,
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  Speaker 2: they'll still be performing at seventy five percent of their
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  Speaker 2: initial installed operating capability, So they will be there in
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  Speaker 2: the first instance, they are going to be there for
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  Speaker 2: a very long time. There are recycling processes that are
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  Speaker 2: in i guess, not an infancy but their early stage
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: of development. But the number of solar panels that have
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  Speaker 2: already been deployed around the world, and various government relatory requirements,
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  Speaker 2: et cetera, demand that there is a sophisticated recycling process established,
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  Speaker 2: and so there's a lot of effort going into really
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  Speaker 2: commercializing that process. At the moment, we've got about fifty
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: years before we really need to get involved in that.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Okay, now, I know, David, whenever we talk about the
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  Speaker 1: sun cable project, I guess because it's so large in
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  Speaker 1: magnitude and it just seems so unbelievable, you know, to
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  Speaker 1: have a cable going all the way from sort of
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  Speaker 1: central Australia to Singapore. But there's a lot of nasayers
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  Speaker 1: and a lot of people saying, Oh, I wonder if
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  Speaker 1: it's a Unicorn project, is it really going to get
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: off the ground. I mean, what would you say to those.
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  Speaker 2: People if you want to do something very large and complex,
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  Speaker 2: there is always going to be a NASA And I
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  Speaker 2: don't know. I don't spend a lot of time trying
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  Speaker 2: to convince them. Otherwise, they're tree to have you think
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  Speaker 2: whatever they want to. We just concentrate on making it happen.
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  Speaker 2: That we've got a hell of a lot of experience
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  Speaker 2: in this industry. We know the fundamentals extremely well, and that,
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  Speaker 2: as you mentioned at the start, there's really three broad
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  Speaker 2: technology groups. Is high other's direct current transmission, battery storage
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  Speaker 2: and solar technology. All of those technologies have been around
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  Speaker 2: for a long time. Battery technology is probably really just
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  Speaker 2: coming to the fall now and from a commercial perspective,
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  Speaker 2: but from an engine perspective, it's been around for quite
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  Speaker 2: a while. The other still a long way to go
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  Speaker 2: into improving those technologies. But we've been designing the system
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  Speaker 2: based on current technology assumptions and it works. Our job
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: is to integrate well known, long history technologies and integrate
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  Speaker 2: them together to create an optimized engineered system and so
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  Speaker 2: our greatest challenge is to knowing that the system works.
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  Speaker 2: Our greatest challenge is to get the best outcome out
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: of that system by through the optimization process. But yeah,
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: we just push on and make it happen.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Well, David, I really appreciate your time this morning and
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: appreciate you giving us an update on the sun Cable project.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having a chat with us.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: That is sun Cable CEO there, David Griffin.