Snowy Hydro 2.0: “one of the biggest disasters” in infrastructure history

Tuesday 2 June 2026

When Snowy Hydro 2.0 was first announced by the Turnbull government in 2017, it was touted as a $2 billion project capable of delivering 2 megawatts of power on command and 350,000 megawatt-hours of storage by 2021.

Since then, the project has faced a series of delays, with costs rising inexorably to $12 billion by August 2023.

Professor Bruce Mountain and former energy executive Ted Woodley believe that Snowy Hydro could end up costing $42 billion, comprising direct construction costs of $20 billion, transmission infrastructure costs totalling $12 billion and interest charges of $8 billion over 15 years:

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.