Pumped hydro is clean and green. It’s also hard and expensive
In 2017, when former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project as an “electricity game-changer” for the power grid, many thought it would herald the start of a string of similar schemes across the country.
Although not a new technology, pumped hydro – which has been around for more than a century and involves generating electricity by moving water from an upper to a lower reservoir – was touted as a replacement for the old, carbon-intensive coal-fired power stations that had formed the backbone of the National Electricity Market for decades.
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said pumped hydro could transform the energy grid. Alex Ellinghausen
But the stark reality of getting pumped hydro projects up and running is they are hard and complex, not to mention expensive.
Fast-forward seven years from Turnbull’s 2017 declaration and the $5.6 billion Snowy 2.0 project is now expected to cost at least $10 billion – and its completion date will now be pushed back to later this decade.
A string of other pumped hydro projects, including EnergyAustralia’s Cultana project in South Australia, which attempted to use saltwater, have been abandoned.
One glimmer of hope is Genex Power’s $777 million, 250 megawatts pumped hydro project at the abandoned Kidston gold mine, about 380 kilometres west of Townsville.
Although it has taken 10 years to come to fruition, it is expected to finally come online next year – the first new pumped hydro project in four decades.
It will provide up to eight hours of continuous energy for the grid at the end and start of each day when renewable energy output is at its lowest.
Genex’s experience is a clear warning for proponents and politicians, including
Read more on afr.com
