A new tunnel boring machine will be deployed at the $12 billion (USD 8 billion) Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro renewable energy project to help meet its commercial operation deadline of December 2028.
Snowy 2.0 will provide an additional 2,200 MW of dispatchable, on-demand generating capacity and approximately 350,000 MWh of large-scale storage to the National Electricity Market (NEM) and will store enough energy to power three million homes continuously for one week.
New ground testing techniques have revealed the full extent of a complex fault zone on the route of the 17 kilometre tunnel that will connect Snowy 2.0’s upper reservoir to its underground power station.
Snowy Hydro Chief Executive Officer Dennis Barnes said activating a fourth tunnel boring machine is the right course of action.
”While the fault zone is not a surprise, further ground testing since the project reset has revealed it is far more geologically challenging than earlier investigations indicated,” Barnes said.
“We’ve carefully considered a range of options to get through the fault zone and overcome the initial design immaturity. Bringing in a fourth machine is the best way to keep the Snowy 2.0 on track for its target completion date of December 2028.”
Image: Australian Government
A modification for Snowy 2.0’s project approval has been submitted to the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, and will be subject to the Department’s independent community consultation and assessment processes.
Barnes said he remains committed to transparency regarding the project, given the inevitable challenges ahead.
“Just like the construction of the original Snowy Scheme, this is one of the most challenging and complex megaprojects underway in the world,” he said.
“The fourth tunnel boring machine is an example of adapting to the situation in front of us, so we are doing everything we can to safely meet Snowy 2.0’s delivery timeline.”
According to the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), Snowy 2.0 will supply a majority of the NEM’s storage needs, greater than every other storage asset combined.
Subject to planning approval, the new machine will be tunnelling before the end of 2025.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.