But experts say the Albanese government has not justified its investment in costly pumped hydro schemes.
“If the contract is not reset, the very clear advice to me … is that the project will take ... even longer and will cost even more than the $12 billion,” Bowen said.“That is not acceptable to the government, so we support the new steps being put in place by the new management of Snowy 2.0 to put this important project back on track.”
Bowen considers Snowy 2.0 critical to the government’s pledge to more than double the amount of power the electricity grid sources from clean energy to 82 per cent by 2030, as it can back up renewables when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. But Edis said batteries, which only run for hours at a time, could be deployed in concert with targeted use of gas plants to offer a low-emissions, low-cost alternative to pumped hydro.
When asked how Snowy’s cost blowout would affect the rest of the energy portfolio budget, Bowen said the Commonwealth would absorb some of it, and raised the prospect of publicly funded equity investments.“None of that’s on the cards. We continue with our energy agenda,” he said.
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