Just a week or so after a group of energy experts called on the state and federal governments to stop work on the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project, it has been reported that the next stage of the Snowy Hydro 2.0 expansion has been given the green light, with approval for construction of the project’s ‘Segment Factory’.

This is a concrete production facility, which will manufacture more than 130,000 concrete tunnel segments which will be used during exploratory works. It is expected that work on the facility will ‘begin within weeks’, according to the NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro.

The factory’s construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2020.

Mr Barilaro says about 150 jobs will be created as part of the new infrastructure.
Many will be ‘entry-level positions’ with all training provided. The approval also means $55 million will be injected into regional NSW, which is good news. However, the major concerns about the environmental impacts of this enormous project continue and the apparent fast tracking of this project heightens concerns that the most stringent environmental tax guidelines may not be followed.

The National Parks Association of NSW (NPA) has produced a research paper, which shows that the case for Snowy 2.0 and its claimed benefits ‘simply don’t stack up’. They say ‘there are better alternatives, ones that avoid catastrophic impacts on Kosciusko National Park’.

They say ‘While NPA strongly supports a rapid shift to renewable energy to decarbonise the electricity sector and supports pumped hydro as a component of this shift, it opposes Snowy 2.0’.

They describe the project as being ‘environmental vandalism ‘.

Take action

The NPA has a letter you can send to the NSW government opposing the project. Please check here.