Snowy Hydro 2.0 cost balloons to $25 billion, 12 times original price
Snowy Hydro 2.0 cost has blown out to $22.2 billion, more than 12 times the original promise.
The delay-plagued Snowy Hydro 2.0 project has hit a massive cost milestone: up to $25 billion, more than a dozen times what Malcolm Turnbull promised just nine years ago. The Federal Government-owned operator confirmed the updated target cost of $22.2 billion, with allowance for a $25 billion scenario.
The cost has also doubled since 2023, when it was estimated at $12 billion. Completion is now pushed out to late 2029, eight years behind the original 2017 target.
The project has battled engineering problems including a tunnel boring machine that became stuck in hard rock in 2024, and earlier in soft ground in Kosciuszko National Park. Chief executive Dennis Barnes said moving away from a fixed-price contract in 2023 likely prevented costs from rising even higher.
- $22.2 billion
- Current cost estimate
- $25 billion
- Worst-case scenario
- $2 billion
- Original promise
- 8 years
- Years behind schedule
Why it mattersAustralian taxpayers own this asset, and these massive overruns mean stretched budgets and delayed completion of critical energy infrastructure.
AustraliaBy 2050, Snowy 2.0 is expected to supply more than half Australia's energy storage, but delays push that benefit years further away and cost taxpayers billions more.
Corroborated byregion.com.au
✓ Claims checked against the source and corrected before publish. checked 1 h ago
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