“This was the reason the founders started the company, and the reason investors invested in the company, in the first place,” Grok said in January. “Once operating, there would be energy generation coming out of Sun Cable to provide renewable energy to both Singapore and various projects in the Northern Territory.”

Loading

Sources close to Sun Cable’s former board, not authorised to speak publicly on the matter, said Forrest had his eye on using the renewable electricity from Sun Cable’s proposed solar farm to create green hydrogen – a clean fuel made by using a renewable energy-powered electrolyser to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Fortescue Future Industries, the green energy arm of the Forrest-backed iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group, is proposing several green hydrogen projects across the country, including in the Northern Territory.

Tattarang and Grok declined to comment on Thursday.

Cannon-Brookes, the co-founder of software giant Atlassian, last year snapped up an 11 per cent stake in AGL, the largest Australian power company, and led a successful push to block a proposal to demerge its coal-fired power stations and instead forced the board to accelerate the plants’ closure dates.

Forrest, the founder and chairman of Fortescue Metals Group, is leading a multibillion-dollar push to diversify the iron ore mining giant into green hydrogen.

The Forrest family’s Squadron Energy has also emerged as the biggest owner of renewable energy in Australia after sealing a deal to buy CWP Renewables for more than $4 billion.

The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon.