Be part of Australia’s energy transition: Apply now

The facts are on the table. In 2018, Australia recognized that something had to be done to make sure the lights wouldn’t suddenly go out all over the country. The problem: on account of the great distances across a continent of just under eight million square kilometers, different energy systems, increasing consumption and retiring coal-fired power plants, there was an impending energy crisis on the horizon. At that time, the share of renewable energies from wind, solar and hydropower stood at only 17 percent of Australian power generation, according to statistics from the Australian Department of the Environment and Energy. Hydropower already made up the largest share of this figure, at 33.0 percent. Half of this amount was generated by the largest hydropower plant in the country, the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme. The lion’s share of Australia’s power supplies today is coal-based. There is a permanent risk of an unstable power grid inherent in this mix of energy supplies. It is increasingly difficult to maintain a balance between energy generation and consumption. Pumped storage technology is the solution. After all, it is currently the only long-term, technically proven and economically viable form of energy storage.

In line with the disconcerting analyses, a change in the mindset among the general public and decision makers also occurred, acknowledging that climate change is threatening life on Planet Earth. The thinly populated continent with around 25.3 million inhabitants (as of April 2019, Australian Bureau of Statistics) is the sixth largest country in the world after Russia, Canada, China, the United States and Brazil. But most of all, this country is one of the most affluent in the world. In 2017, Australia ranked third in the United Nations Development Index, specifically due to its huge mineral deposits. On account of the high amount of fossil fuels extracted, the country is virtually independent of imports of such natural resources. There are no nuclear power plants for electricity generation. The snag: the massive share of fossil fuels leads to huge emissions of greenhouse gases and contributes to global warming. In 1997, Australia was the second to last industrial nation to sign the Kyoto Protocol that came into effect in 2005, the precursor to the Paris Agreement. The declared goal is now to cease wasting the country’s own resources, and to use them with more care or find substitutes.

The Paris Agreement (in French: Accord de Paris, in German: Übereinkommen von Paris) is an agreement between the 197 signatory countries to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with the objective of climate protection. The Convention was signed on December 12, 2015.

Voith has had operations in Australia and New Zealand for decades. There are more than 80 employees working in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne. Voith opened a branch office in Sydney at the beginning of 2018, with the goal of expanding its local presence in the region. The objective of this new subsidiary is to serve local producers and customers quickly and flexibly, with high-quality products and customized services. Having a representative office in the country helps us understand the geographical conditions, to get a deep insight into the hydropower market and its (legal) peculiarities, and to fulfill the clients’ specific needs.

The Future Generation Joint Venture and Voith signed an agreement with Snowy Hydro Ltd. to build the Snowy 2.0 project in April 2019. The plant will be operated by Snowy Hydro Ltd. Equipped with electrical and mechanical power plant components, Snowy 2.0 is going to be one of the ten largest pumped storage power plants in the world.

The gigantic project: the two existing dams in the Snowy Mountains systems with the Tantangara and Talbingo lakes are to be connected to each other by subterranean tunnels and a subterranean power plant with pump and electricity generating units. It should be kept in mind that they are 27 kilometers apart and at different altitudes! The entire power plant is almost one kilometer vertically below the mountain peak. The contract covers the delivery of six reversible Francis pump-turbines. The scope of delivery further includes six motor-generators, the auxiliary systems and the entire power plant automation system. The imponderables that could be experienced, however great the effort put into planning, striving for perfection and the most exacting calculations, will be a major challenge. Voith has already successfully managed complex projects of this kind. But in its specific constellation Snowy 2.0 is unique.