Snowy 2.0 is a silly idea dreamt up by a silly man. Nothing unusual for Australia.

I predict that in a few years we will be as grateful for Snowy 2 as we were for Snowy 1. Case in point Broken Hill has changed its water supply from the drought prone Darling to where the Murray meets the Murrumbidgee made reliable by the Snowy diversion.

The preferred AEMO model says Australia will need 640 gigawatt hours of energy storage with over half coming from Snowy 2 at 350 gigawatt hours. All the lithium batteries combined should they be plugged in (including EVs) will only amount to a handful of gigawatt hours. Other ideas such as using old coal pits for pumped hydro will probably not succeed due to mud and lack of elevation. The Tasmanian pumped hydro proposal needs over $2bn for underwater cables so far the money is not forthcoming.

It should dawn on people that the so called bad old days of mainly realtime baseload power weren't really so bad except for emissions. Build small modular reactors at retired coal stations and re-use the transmission, cooling ponds and skilled staff.

Not sure if I agree with any of, Tristian's critique. Particularly with regard to the original snowy hydro. That said, pumped hydro is a very poor and costly substitute for what is never ever considered here, i.e., nuclear power!

Not old soviet style nuclear power with solid fuel reactors that need competent, expert, oversight control 24/7! But rather, MSR (molten salt reactor) Thorium. And with that walk away safe reactor type and thorium as the fuel, power prices as low or lower than 1 cent PKWH. And as carbon free energy to boot!

I believe the current government will do nothing other than waste money on huge white elephants all over the shop, just to hang on to green preferences along with, insane economy killing, green power generation. The very last thing our rapidly disappearing industrialized sector needs!

The only party with MSR thorium on the table currently is, the citizen's party. And if we're to have it? Then, we need to vote for the citizen's party, and you need your friends and their friends and their fiends etc-etc, to also vote likewise! So, get up off your butts, get on the phone or out and about spreading the word! Nothing worthwhile gets done without the public onboard first! And currently nuclear has as much as around 70% approval.

It's only gormless conflicted politicians that stand in the way of sane change!

If this were not so, we would already have MSR thorium as policy. And the referenced 10 billion would purchase dozens of them off the shelf and towed here in double hulled barges to be sited wherever any convenient waterway allowed. And inside twelve months.

Decommissioning is done by the manufacturer at their northern hemisphere site given much of the material can be variously and very safely recycled

If I could have one in my backyard? Then I'd have one, like yesterday! As for coal? we can't dig up enough for our current export markets!

Don't just do something, stand there.
Alan B.

Thinking of Snowy 2.0 as a electric-power project misses the point - it was never about generating electricity and completely about politics.

In 2017 the government was in trouble as regards its lunatic green schemes and it was starting to dawn on the electorate that power prices were rising and destined to rise into the future due to the war on coal.

Snowy 2.0 neutralised this problem. Now Turnbull could say that he'd anticipated the problems and had solved them. Hail Snowy 2.0!

Now, whenever concerns about rising power costs were raised, the government could say the problem was already solved and we just had to wait for the 2.0 water to turn the 2.0 turbines to achieve power nirvana. Political problem solved. Actual real world power problem kicked down the road past the next election.

Seen as a political solution to a political problem, Snowy 2.0 was a massive success. And for our leadership, that's all that counts.

Hi Alan B,

You were doing well until you started to push the virtues of 'The Australian Citizens Party', a bunch of crackpots and right wing extremist full of conspiracy theories, with links to a renowned nutter the American, Lyndon LaRoach.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Citizens_Party

p/s The Australian Citizens Party scored 0.07% of the national vote in the Senate at the 2016 election when they stood candidates in every state and territory.