Snowy Hydro 2.0 is costing $25bn – 12 times more than its initial estimate. How did we get here?
News Source
•Fri, 23 Oct 2026 14:00:28 GMT
📰 What Happened
The cost of Snowy 2.0 has reached up to $25bn, more than 12 times the $2bn first promised in 2017. The pumped hydro project will link two Snowy reservoirs with about 27km of tunnels. It is meant to work like a giant battery, storing 350,000 megawatt-hours.
Water is pumped uphill when power is cheap, then released through turbines when demand is high. Energy minister Chris Bowen calls it one of the most complicated engineering projects in the world. Completion is now expected in late 2029, with more than a third of tunnelling still to go.
🔍 The Backstory
Malcolm Turnbull announced the plan in 2017, after coal plants closed. A study soon put the cost at $5.4bn to $6.9bn. The go-ahead came at $6.1bn before geology checks, environmental approvals and transmission lines were settled.
One boring machine, Florence, got stuck 150 metres into a 15km dig and sat still for nearly a year. The cost doubled to $12bn by 2023, then kept climbing. Experts had warned in 2020 that the project would cost more and deliver less.
🎯 Why It Matters
Snowy 2.0 uses public money, so every blowout lands on taxpayers and power bills. It also shapes how reliable the grid is when the sun is not shining.
The cost of Snowy 2.0 has reached up to $25bn, more than 12 times the $2bn first promised in 2017. The pumped hydro project will link two Snowy reservoirs with about 27km of tunnels. It is meant to work like a giant battery, storing 350,000 megawatt-hours.
Water is pumped uphill when power is cheap, then released through turbines when demand is high. Energy minister Chris Bowen calls it one of the most complicated engineering projects in the world. Completion is now expected in late 2029, with more than a third of tunnelling still to go.
Malcolm Turnbull announced the plan in 2017, after coal plants closed. A study soon put the cost at $5.4bn to $6.9bn. The go-ahead came at $6.1bn before geology checks, environmental approvals and transmission lines were settled.
One boring machine, Florence, got stuck 150 metres into a 15km dig and sat still for nearly a year. The cost doubled to $12bn by 2023, then kept climbing. Experts had warned in 2020 that the project would cost more and deliver less.
Snowy 2.0 uses public money, so every blowout lands on taxpayers and power bills. It also shapes how reliable the grid is when the sun is not shining.