Content overview: “Snowy Hydro 2.0 cost blows out to $25bn, completion pushed to 2029”. The Snowy Hydro 2.0 pumped-hydro project has seen its projected cost soar to as much as $25bn, a twelve-fold increase from the initial $2bn estimate when it was first announced by the Turnbull government in 2017. The latest reassessment also pushes the completion date to 2029, a year later than the previous target of end-2028. Snowy Hydro CEO Dennis Barnes said the outcome 'could have been worse' given the challenges, but the figures underscore the project's ongoing struggles with tunnelling in the Kosciuszko national park, now 65% finished.
The revised cost and schedule highlight the risks of large-scale renewable infrastructure and will intensify scrutiny on the federal government's energy transition plans. As Australia grapples with grid reliability and decarbonisation, the project's delays and overruns could influence future investment decisions in long-duration storage. The full version stays on the original page, which this listing opens directly.