'Free trade is dead': Why Quinbrook's founder backs a Future Made in Australia
David Scaysbrook explains the renewables pioneer's approach to investing and its accidental stake in Sun Cable alongside Mike Cannon-Brookes' Grok Ventures.
Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners has been at the vanguard of renewable energy project development since its inception in 2010. Until recently, the Australian-based infrastructure fund manager spent all its time in the US and the UK, finding few compelling opportunities in its own backyard.
Since the 2022 federal election that has all changed, and now Quinbrook is bringing its pioneering approach to solar and battery storage to green energy superpower projects in Darwin, Townsville and Gladstone, including Grok Ventures’ Sun Cable, a green iron project in Gladstone and Supernode - a business that co-locates data centre and renewable energy projects.
Co-founder and managing partner David Scaysbrook explains why he has found the US market so attractive to date, what opportunities he sees for his Australian business going forward and his support for the government’s Future Made in Australia strategy on the basis that “global free trade is dead”.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Has Quinbrook always specialised in renewable energy?
We founded Quinbrook in 2015 as a fund manager after operating as a renewable independent power producer since 2010. It has always been project-focused - for the first iteration of the company that I started, we ended up selling to a private equity firm in the UK.
