Lake Onslow Pumped Hydro a goer.

[harm_less]

We need to invest in more hydro, especially in areas where there is plenty of rain I.e. the West Coast.  The dams on the Waikato are quickly approaching their end of life and will need to be replaced or majorly upgraded.  And $16 billion won't be the cost - you know this so stop quoting that price.

Lake Onslow is "more hydro" and the cost of $15.7b is what is stated in the news article. Do you also have an issue with the expected $2.2b/year for hydrocarbon export cost to cover generation shortfall without the storage potential of Onslow?

All prices/costs are a snapshot and will increase over time due to inflation and changing business modelling. I can remember when petrol cost <$1/gallon in the mid 1970s but the decades since then have made that price totally irrelevant in today's terms. The same will apply for fuel, electricity and construction prices going into the future.

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Which is the problem now...and forever, these projects cost so much money. The Auckland rail project, and The Great Interceptor, long, long overdue, and so very expensive...but to delay further the costs would be almost insurmountable.

The most important thing is to have the foresight to accurately see the long term value of such projects.

For example at the time of construction the Gas to Gasoline plant at Motunui in North Taranaki I seem to remember a cost of $2b being touted. The reasoning was that the synthetic petrol this plant was to produce would insulate NZ from rising international oil prices but these fears were shortlived and the plant dispensed with the methanol to petrol part of the process and was sold to Methanex who are still converting our remaining natural gas reserves to methanol for export. The short term thinking in constructing that plant has proved to be an expense folly.

Lake Onslow is based on a far longer time frame of self sufficiency with many more advantages for NZ's domestic energy sector. The investment of $16b, or whatever the end cost will be, is far better thought out that the knee jerk reactionary thinking of National's 1980's Think Big projects, which also include the Waitara Valley methanol plant, Ballance's Ammonia Urea plant, the Marsden Point refinery expansion all of which have become white elephants.

Along the same lines how wise is the plan to spend $4b on Auckland Airport in the face of a world that is increasingly reducing their international travels for reasons of emissions, pandemics and reduced personal financial standing considering our location being so geographically isolated?