$40bn Snowy Hydro 2.0 to never finish?
Australia’s worst-kept secret is out. The energy transition is meaningfully behind. At the current build rate, we will hit about 75% renewables by 2030, versus the planned 82%, a shortfall of roughly 8 GW of wind and solar (mostly the former). AEMO puts the shortfall at up to 12 GW. Basically: solar is largely on The post $40bn Snowy Hydro 2.0 to never finish? appeared first on MacroBusiness .
The Snowy Hydro 2.0 pumped hydro battery project, essential for providing reliability to Australia's proposed renewables network, may face construction challenges that could render its $12 billion investment valueless. The project's delays stem from ignoring feasibility study warnings and prioritizing political targets over efficiency.
Despite accounting for only 75% of the planned 82% renewable energy target by 2030, Australia has made haphazard decisions based on expedience. This has led to a reliance on gas and an expanding network of coal plants, which are costly to maintain and increasingly unreliable. The Snowy Hydro project, intended to support renewable energy, now appears to be an inefficient and costly endeavor, potentially requiring subsidies and extended lifespans for coal plants.
The situation is further complicated by a lack of cheap and reliable gas, making gas power plants a more viable alternative for energy security.
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