Australia-based developer of the world’s largest renewable energy and transmission project Australia-Asia PowerLink (AAPowerLink), SunCable has appointed Ryan Willemsen-Bell as its group chief executive officer (CEO). He brings several years of experience across energy, retail, manufacturing, logistics, transport and business services to SunCable. His last assignment was with Origin Energy where he worked for over 16 years, most recently as the general manager for future fuels and carbon business. He is also on the board of the Australian Hydrogen Council. “SunCable is on a mission to support decarbonisation of the Asia-Pacific region and Ryan’s contribution to the renewable energy sector and nation-building projects will be invaluable to SunCable as it progresses development of its flagship Australia-Asia PowerLink (AAPowerLink) project,” said Grok Ventures CEO Tan Kueh. “Under Ryan’s leadership, we are confident SunCable will continue to build on these wins and propel the company to its next stage,” added Kueh. Willemsen-Bell will work closely with the company’s senior leadership team and board with a focus on some key priorities. These are identified as progressing engagement across Australian, Singaporean, and Indonesian governments among other stakeholders, and finalizing subsea cable mapping.He will also focus on progressing the company’s high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cable procurement strategy while continuing negotiations and finalizing Indigenous Land Use Agreements (ILUA) for the AAPowerLink project. The project was launched to build up to 20 GW of solar PV and 42 GWh of battery storage capacity in Australia’s Darwin in the Northern Territory. Later, it went through a change of ownership with Australian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Ventures acquiring the company. It was restructured into onshore and offshore businesses under Mark Branson as CDO and Mitesh Patel as interim CEO and COO, respectively (see Mike Cannon-Brookes Takes Over AAPowerLink Project). According to the company's current plans, the AAPowerLink project aims to deliver up to 6 GW of 24x7 green electricity over 2 stages of development. Out of the total, around 4 GW will be devoted to Australia’s green industrial customers in Darwin, while the remaining 1.75 GW will be fed to customers in Singapore via a 4,300 km subsea cable through Indonesia. David Griffin, the founder and former CEO of SunCable, joined the technology partner 5B as its CEO (see Sun Cable Founder & Ex-CEO Joins Australian PV Tech Firm).
