{"id":1154109,"date":"2019-12-06T06:24:45","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T12:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1008613"},"modified":"2019-12-06T06:24:45","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T12:24:45","slug":"australias-mining-tycoon-andrew-forrest-invests-in-giant-solar-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1154109","title":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s mining tycoon Andrew Forrest invests in giant solar farm"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australian mining billionaire and<br \/>\nphilanthropist Andrew \u201cTwiggy\u201d Forrest is said to have come to the rescue of a<br \/>\nmassive and troubled solar farm in Western Australia&#8217;s Wheatbelt,&nbsp;by<br \/>\nagreeing to invest in the A$130 million ($88m) project.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sydney-based Sun Brilliance has been working on a 100-megawatt solar farm at Cunderdin, about two hours east of Perth, since 2016. The company, however, has struggled to secure financing and faced snags connecting to the grid since it first proposed the project in 2016, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2019-12-06\/andrew-forrest-to-invest-in-sun-brilliance-solar-farm-cunderdin\/11771504\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Sun Brilliance <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SunBrilliance\/status\/1202734388368138240\" >confirmed through a tweet on Friday<\/a> that it had held \u201cvery positive discussions\u201d with a \u201chigh-calibre investor\u201d to back its project, but didn\u2019t mention Forrester or any of its companies.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/SunBrillianceTweet.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1008615\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/SunBrillianceTweet.jpg 619w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/SunBrillianceTweet-254x300.jpg 254w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 619px) 100vw, 619px\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>Just two weeks ago, the founder of<br \/>\niron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group (ASX: FMG) grabbed headlines for backing<br \/>\nanother solar farm in Australia\u2019s Northern Territory, which is expected to<br \/>\nsupply electricity to Singapore.<\/p>\n<p>The company behind that project, Sun Cable, said Forrest\u2019s Squadron Energy and Grok Ventures <a href=\"https:\/\/09b6cb66-c47f-4180-8cdc-7108de9fa117.filesusr.com\/ugd\/8113d4_4bded7705b87485497b2b013d75a837d.pdf\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">had become co-lead investors in the\u00a0A$20bn-plus\u00a0development<\/a>. If successful, the so called Australia-Singapore Power Link development would include a 10-gigawatt-capacity array of panels spread across 15,000 hectares near Tennant Creek, backed by about 22 gigawatt-hours in battery storage.<\/p>\n<p>The NT plan is being developed alongside a similarly ambitious proposal for the Pilbara, the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/asianrehub.com\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Asian Renewable Energy Hub<\/a>. The proposed 15-gigawatt wind and solar hybrid plant is expected to power local industry and develop a green hydrogen manufacturing hub.<\/p>\n<p>Forrester is also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/web\/australia-backs-solar-farm-for-two-fortescue-iron-ore-mines\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">investing in 60 megawatt (MW) solar farm<\/a> being built by Alinta Energy at Christmas Creek, which would help replace diesel generation at mines owned\u00a0by Fortescue Metals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sun Brilliance has been working on a 100-megawatt solar farm at Cunderdin since 2016, struggled to secure financing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1035,2849,369,4,2857],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1154109"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1154109"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1154109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1154137,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1154109\/revisions\/1154137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1154109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1154109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1154109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}