Chris Bowen warns Snowy Hydro’s $25bn price tag not ‘set in stone’ - The Australian

Energy Minister Chris Bowen has signalled that the $25 billion price tag for Snowy Hydro 2.0 may increase, saying the figure is not "set in stone". The remark comes as the project faces cost pressures typical of major infrastructure builds in Australia. Bowen did not specify a revised estimate or timeline.

Where this fits

Snowy Hydro 2.0 is the centrepiece of the government's firming strategy for a renewables-led grid. It is the single largest planned source of firm, dispatchable power to cover the weather variability that solar and wind introduce. When the cost of firm power rises, the whole-system economics of the renewable transition shift. A $25 billion pump-hydro scheme already represents a massive bet on one location; a higher bill underscores that the real cost of a renewables-only grid, the cost to firm and stabilise it, has been systematically understated in the cheerleading around panel and battery costs.

What it means

Australia is locking into a grid architecture that depends on a single major firming asset, Snowy Hydro 2.0, that now carries an uncertain and rising price tag. There is no plan B for firm power at scale. Nuclear generation, which would provide firm, low-emission capacity at comparable or lower whole-system cost and without geographic constraint, remains banned by law. As Snowy's bill climbs, the cost advantage of that foregone option becomes sharper. Australia is paying more and more for less flexibility, on a supply chain it does not control, to avoid a technology it has legislated away.