Sometime in the next month or two, the first investment in what will be a significant new stage in the transition to a renewable energy dominated grid in Australia will be made.
It will be confirmation of the world’s first investment in a project that co-locates, for the first time, large-scale solar with a large-scale pumped hydro storage facility – and the first example in Australia of a storage facility with vastly more storage capacity than the renewable energy source it is paired with.
Storage is a new phenomenon in Australia – even though there are a handful of pumped hydro plants scattered around the main grid, from Wivenhoe in the north, to Shoalhaven and Tumut in NSW.
There has been extraordinary interest in the performance of the country’s first large-scale battery, the so-called Tesla big battery at Hornsdale, which is also the world’s biggest lithium-ion installation.
This, and the Newman battery in the Pilbara, have stunned observers with the speed, accuracy and flexibility, challenging the primacy of the fossil fuel industry in providing both frequency and inertia, and defying the assumption that you need fossil fuels to keep the grid intact.
One expects as much excitement and scrutiny of the Genex project at Kidston, although that won’t be the only project that is due to get an investment nod around that time. Snowy Hydro is also working feverishly on its own grand plans to recreate the splendor of the original hydro scheme and add a $6 billion plus project to be known as Snowy 2..0
It is not entirely clear, however, that the investment decision to be taken by early December will be a commitment to the whole project, the 2,000MW facility with 175 hours of storage, or to fund extensive tunnelling that will then form the basis of further investment.
Whatever the case, these are not the only pumped hydro schemes that are being looked at in detail.
Recent Comments