Qld 14 Billion for pumped hydro storage

[Sparty]

The Palaszczuk government will commit $14 billion to fund one of Australia’s most expensive renewable energy projects, the Borumba pumped hydro project in south-east Queensland.

It is one of two mega pumped hydro projects the government is relying on to enable it to shut down the state’s five coal-fired power stations by 2035, even though other pumped hydro projects, such as Snowy 2.0 and Genex Power’s Kidston project in North Queensland, have been plagued by cost blow-outs and slow development timelines.


Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick said the Borumba pumped hydro project would offer 24 hours of energy storage.

Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick has said that the total cost for the 2 gigawatt Borumba project in the Sunshine Coast hinterland – which will be able to supply 24 hours of continuous energy into the grid – would be $14 billion.

The government will commit $6 billion in equity funding in next week’s budget, and the rest will come from borrowing from state-owned company Queensland Hydro.

There will be no money allocated in Tuesday’s budget to the larger 5 gigawatt Pioneer-Burdekin project – touted as the largest pumped hydro project in the world and which is expected to have an even larger price tag – because it is not as advanced as the Borumba project.

The total cost for the two pumped hydro projects in Queensland is expected to top $30 billion.

Queensland’s strong economic position post-pandemic had allowed the Palaszczuk government to fund cost-of-living measures, pay down debt and fund key infrastructure, such as Borumba, in next Tuesday’s budget.


“Within nine months of our [$62 billion] Energy and Jobs plan, we are making a substantial investment which we can do because of the strength of our budget and economy,” Mr Dick said.

The treasurer rejected criticism about relying on pumped hydro projects to replacing the state’s coal-fired power stations by mid-next decade, as other states opt to embrace big batteries instead.

“We have no evidence we are not going to hit that [2035] target,” he said.

“We are proceeding at pace and that’s why this investment is so important at this time.

“We think it’s a very clear, solid, proven technology and battery storage is going to have to accelerate significantly to catch proven technology like pumped hydro.”

Geography is crucial for pumped hydro projects, which require an upper and lower reservoir. Water is pumped – preferably using renewable energy such as solar or wind – from the lower to upper reservoir and then stored until it is needed, making it a “virtual battery”.

The Borumba projects is expected to be completed by 2029, while the Pioneer-Burdekin project is not due to be operational until 2035.

The Palaszczuk government is aiming to have 70 per cent renewable energy by 2032 and 80 per cent by 2035 – a big task given renewables only make up about 25 per cent of total power generation at present.

Energy experts have already warned Queensland’s two proposed pumped hydro plants – set to replace its existing fleet of five state-owned coal-fired power stations – only have 24 hours of storage capacity, compared to seven days for Snowy 2.0.

Genex Power founder Simon Kidston has also acknowledged pumped hydro projects are hard to get off the ground, saying it took 10 years to get the $777 million Kidston project from idea to near-completion.

Snowy Hydro’s Snowy 2.0 project has run into several problems, with the budget blowing out from $3 billion to $5.9 billion – and could climb as high as $10 billion – and now a two-year delay to 2029.

There has also been some local opposition to the Borumba project, near Gympie, and the location of large transmission lines to connect the project to the grid.


Genex Power’s pumped hydro storage project has taken 10 years to get off the ground.

The CSIRO’s Renewable Energy Storage Roadmap report, released in April, estimated the national electricity market could require a 10- to 14-fold increase in its electricity storage capacity between 2025 and 2050.

It said batteries and pumped hydro would play a key role in storage provision, but noted the major challenges for pumped hydro projects and cited cost overruns and time delays to Snowy 2.0 and Genex Power’s Kidston project in North Queensland.

More about pumped storage: https://www.alternative-energy.com.a...ad.php?t=10086