The revised estimate for the scheme is contingent on completion by end of 2028 and may rise further if delays persist
— Read on www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/31/snowy-hydro-2-project-scheme-billion-cost-blowout-kosciuszko-national-park

how much more can this cost get away from Turnbull original $no 2Billion? It looks like $5B more to connect to wider grid.which

Especially with so many big bush fires, when damage to grid disrupts activities and communications in all areas, it’s been controversial to rely on big grid connection to big remote power.

The alternative is DER(distributed energy resources). This means commercial as well as rooftop solarPV with community battery backup. Electric vehicles care seen by grid fans. Others consider EVs an asset.For ease of arithmetic, which you can factor up or down, let’s say household demand is 10kWh per day and that EV battery size is 50kWh. ABS advises we have 20Million cars on the road, of which, to reduce emissions by 50% before 2030, we need to get rid of 10Million.

10M cars x 50kWh each = 500GWh which is 200 times more energy storage than Snowy 2.0. Alternatively to just match capacity, car numbers can be less, 44,000.

Finally, bang for the buck, fo r each of 44,000 EVs, government could subsidise by $409,000 each to match amount of energy stored in Snowy 2.0. EVs are also close to users, independent from grid, and can be removed from extreme weather.

Did Snowy 2.0 ever make any sense?