Wivenhoe at 40: A Blueprint for Queensland's Energy Future

From memories of mega-construction, to the critical role it plays almost every day keeping the lights on across Brisbane, Wivenhoe Pumped Hydro Power Station had a lot to celebrate on its 40th birthday last week.

It’s a momentous achievement: 40 years of powering the equivalent of 450,000 Queensland homes throughout the year with clean, reliable energy.

A milestone like this was cause to reflect on the prevailing times when it was commissioned and built, and on the decisions that set it all in motion.

1984 was the year Medicare came into effect, and the one-dollar coin and the hundred-dollar note were minted.

Kids in the Kitchen was on high rotation in Queensland homes and Bruce Springsteen was number one with ‘Dancing in the Dark’.

Bob Hawke was Prime Minister and, in Queensland, Joh Bjelke-Petersen was still Premier.

Now, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen is not usually a name that’s synonymous with progressive thinking, after all in Queensland in 1984, walking three abreast could see you arrested for an “illegal street march”.

And yet in 1978, ten years into Joh’s 19-year run as Queensland’s Premier he had the foresight to commission Wivenhoe Pumped Hydro Power Station.

When the Station opened in 1984, he called Wivenhoe:

“A showcase for the world” and “an enormous asset to Queensland’s electricity supply… and to the people of Queensland”.

Wivenhoe was built to complement a coal-dominated grid, while today it sucks up Queensland’s cheap rooftop solar and large-scale renewables to power our homes at night.

So much in the Sunshine State has changed, and yet pumped hydro is still the most proven solution for energy reliability.

Queensland’s energy needs four decades on are six times greater, the population has increased by more than three million people and our energy consumption has grown dramatically.

To transition from coal dominance to renewable energy, we’re going to need hydro storage with significantly more output and duration than what we have at Wivenhoe – about 30 times more.

Enter Borumba and Pioneer Burdekin Pumped Hydros, set to create 5,000 jobs during construction and store enough power to replace almost the entirety of Queensland’s coal-fired fleet.

For 40 years, Joh’s big water battery has demonstrated that pumped hydro works: it’s tried, tested and reliable.

Today, the long duration storage that only pumped hydro can provide, is the most affordable and proven means to escape reliance on coal.

But big-scale pumped hydro isn’t easy. It requires vision, commitment, and grit. Bjelke-Petersen had it, but today’s LNP just can’t grasp it.

Long duration pumped hydro is too hard for Queensland’s conservative political leader David Crisafulli.

He doesn’t support renewable energy and is too weak to stop his own party going rogue on nuclear.

Real leadership requires both vision and values.

That’s why the Labor Government is embarking on truly nation building renewable energy infrastructure.

Only Labor will ensure energy doesn’t cost the earth, and that our kids don’t inherit a nuclear wasteland.