‘Billionaire biffo’ shines light on hugely ambitious $30bn Sun Cable solar project

Behind the "billionaire biffo" between Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew Forrest over the future of Sun Cable is a project that has analysts dubbing "visionary" but also "extremely ambitious".

In Australia's first big business story of the year, Sun Cable was placed into voluntary administration on Wednesday. That signalled the company won't be able to meet debt payments without another injection of funds said to be $60m, with Forrest the one not "aligned" with other investors in a willingness to dig deep again.

One day on, a spokesperson for Cannon-Brookes's investment arm, Grok, said it was committed to Sun Cable and if there was an opportunity to "remain invested alongside a consortium with constructive partners it is something we would certainly consider".

Calling in administrators should not be interpreted as Forrest definitely walking away, a well-placed source said.

But Sun Cable's main project, the Australia Asia PowerLink, will now get greater scrutiny from outsiders as they try to understand its viability and lure others to invest or even buy out existing shareholders.

Self-described as "the world's largest solar infrastructure network", the $30bn project would carpet 12,000 hectares - more than 40 times the size of Sydney's central business district - of the Northern Territory with solar panels. Electricity would help power Darwin and, via a 4,200km-, 3.2 gigawatt-cable, meet 15% of Singapore's electricity needs and parts of Indonesia's.

The problems are technical, economic and even geopolitical. Giving some observers solace is the presence of David Griffin, Sun Cable's founder and chief executive, who is a veteran of the renewable industry. "He's very competent at these kinds of things," said one industry insider. "He loves obstacles, he loves challenges."