Software billionaire prevails in bidding war for world's largest renewable project

Australian software billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes has been confirmed as the buyer of the immense solar infrastructure project Sun Cable.

It comes after a bidding war with Western Australian mining tycoon Andrew Forrest, who also had ambitions for the project.

When built, Sun Cable is intended to generate immense quantities of solar power in the Northern Territory and transmit it to Singapore.

READ MORE: New proposal to make parts of Melbourne CBD car free

If completed, it would be the largest renewable energy project in the world.

The project went into voluntary administration in January.

But late yesterday the administrators confirmed an asset sale agreement with a company owned by Cannon-Brookes.

While no price was mentioned in the statement, it is believed the project will cost about $35 billion to complete.

The transaction is forecast to be completed by the end of July.

A statement from the administrators said Cannon-Brookes' intention was to deliver 0.9 gigawatts of generation into Darwin and 1.8 gigawatts into Singapore.

Cannon-Brookes is the co-founder of software company Atlassian, and the sixth richest person in Australia.

Forrest is the second richest person in Australia.

Sun Cable's administration was connected to a falling out between the two billionaires over the direction of the company.

READ MORE: US could run out of money to pay its bills by June 5

Sign up here to receive our daily newsletters and breaking news alerts, sent straight to your inbox.