At Easter in 1964, a mate and I did a tour of the Snowy Mountains Scheme. That was a long time ago but I still remember how impressed we were with the scale of the project and the pride of the workmen in what had been achieved. I remember asking our guide why they didn't pump the water back up to the dams after it had been through the turbines, so it could be used again. After all, it was going to waste and would eventually run into the sea. In my naivety, I didn't understand that it would take more energy to pump it up than would be generated on the way down.
Now, this is exactly what they are planning to do: pump it up in the daytime using cheap energy generated by the sun or the wind, and release it back down when there is peak demand.
Why has it taken so long for our coal-obsessed government to come up with this plan? If this idea has any merit, it must have been kicking around in the energy advisory lobbies for years but only surfaces when South Australia gets fed up waiting for some Federal leadership and goes it alone.
Apparently, Tasmania has been lobbying for years for some Federal funding to develop a pumped storage scheme in our hydro system. As you would expect, our premier has his hand out again today. If there's $2 billion floating around, we might hope to get a few crumbs.
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