The massive pumped hydro project in the Snowy Mountains planned by Australia’s conservative Liberal-National government has been strongly criticised by two assessments, which say its cost will blow out to five times the initial $2 billion cost and permanently destroy a swathe of the Kosciuszko National Park.
The concerns have been raised by the New South Wales NSW National Parks Association in a report written by a former senior energy engineer, Ted Woodley.
At the same time Dr Bruce Mountain Director, Victoria Energy Policy Centre, Victoria University, writing in the academic website The Conversation has said the project should be halted.
Mr Woodley said the public had until recently been left in the dark about the likely cost of the project, which would drill 27 kilometres of tunnels linking Snowy Hydro dams, creating as much as 2000 megawatts of generation capacity.
The release of the environmental impact statement for the project’s main works and the awarding of a $5.1 billion contract for part of the construction, however, have revealed sufficient detail to prompt a pause of the plan, he said.
The total bill, including transmission lines, would probably top $10 billion.
“It’s economically unviable, it trashes the national park and doesn’t deliver what it promises,” Mr Woodley said.
“It’s the worst possible project in the worst possible place, and there are many better alternatives.”
The then Liberal-National prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said in March 2017 it would be a “game-changing” project that would foster the roll-out of more wind and solar energy into the grid by 2021 at a cost of $2 billion.
Mr Turnbull said on Twitter “the claim that the scheme is in the wrong place is ludicrous”.
“Snowy Hydro sits between the two biggest centres of demand in NSW and Victoria,” he said.
“Of course transmission will have to be upgraded, as it will be right around the country as we move from high emission centralised generation burning coal to decentralised zero emission renewables.
“As for the environmental impact, one of the biggest attractions of Snowy 2.0 is that almost all of the infrastructure will be underground, and no new dams need to be built.”
The cost estimate has since ballooned and its owner, the now fully government-owned Snowy Hydro, has said it will be ready by 2025, even though the major works contractor expects it to take eight years.
Paul Broad, Snowy Hydro’s chief executive, dismissed the NPA report as “just a set of random and unfounded assertions which ignore the true facts about this project”.
“Snowy 2.0 is a project that is investing for the next 100 years, that will keep Australia’s lights on, keep power prices down, and ensure Australia can make a secure transition to a clean energy future,” he said, adding the projected capital costs remain within the 2017 Feasibility Study cost of $3.8 billion to $4.5 billion.
The Liberal-National government’s Energy Minister Angus Taylor said the project was “progressing in line” with that 2017 study: “Recent commentary on the Snowy 2.0 project has been highly politicised and is not based in fact.”
At the same time Dr Mountain has written on The Conversation that the federal government’s much-vaunted Snowy Hydro expansion is supposed to smooth out the bumps in electricity supply as Australia transitions to renewable energy.
He said not only was the project a bad deal for taxpayers, but analysis suggested it would deliver a fraction of the energy benefits promised.
Dr Mountain said the Snowy 2.0 project was supposed to provide a solution to the problem of storing renewable energy for when it is needed.
“The project’s cost and time estimates have blown out massively.
“It would now be surprising if Snowy 2.0, including the transmission upgrades it relies on, comes in at less than $10 billion or is finished before 2027.
“But there is another serious problem.
“Our analysis has revealed that of the extra pumped hydro capacity promised by the project, less than half can be delivered.
“There is now overwhelming evidence the project should be put on hold.”
Matt Kean, the Liberal-National NSW state energy minister, said the project would act as a giant battery, storing cheap energy from solar and wind ready to be used when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.
“New transmission is going to be essential to making sure that the state can access new, reliable and affordable generation,” Mr Kean said.
However, his Victorian counterpart, Lily D’Ambrosio said the Labor state government had “been calling on Angus Taylor to explain how Snowy Hydro 2.0 stacks up for a long time now”.
“The federal government needs to demonstrate why this project, over others, will deliver better outcomes for Victorians,” she said.
Environmental impacts include permanent damage to 100 square kilometres of the national park, while about a third of the park , equivalent to twice the size of Greater Sydney, would be disturbed during construction, Mr Woodley has said.
Dr Mountain warned project would create “an incredibly inflexible hydro operation” that was more costly than alternatives, including demand management or even gas, he said.
“There’s no crying need for it, you’re not jeopardising grid security without it, you’d be much wiser waiting.”
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