Snowy 2.0 was sold as a $2bn “nation-building” battery finished by 2021.
The cost has jumped from an original $2 billion estimate, to around $6 billion, then to a $12 billion “reset” in 2023. By early 2026 they had already spent about $11 billion, and officials have admitted the $12 billion target won’t be met.
Expected direct construction costs are above $20 billion, and as high as $40 billion once interest and the required transmission lines are included.
A 10–20× blowout.
The original 2021 target is long gone. Still officially aiming for end-2028, but the CEO has said they’re not comfortable with it.
If nuclear is “too expensive and too slow,” what do you call a project that has already consumed most of its revised budget, is years late, keeps finding new problems, permanently scars a national park, and still isn’t delivering firm power and only shifting energy around?
Taxpayers are the clear losers, locked into an ever-rising bill with no easy exit, while contractors, consultants, and political backers have extracted massive gains along the way.