Can’t Explain by Oze

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Three million homes for a week

content/entries/three-million-homes.md

From Can’t Explain On GitHub

title: "Three million homes for a week" claim: "Snowy 2.0 is a critical project to Australia’s energy future – providing enough renewable energy and storage to power three million homes for a week." caption: "The house-count grew. The tank did not. The week assumes a full dam and an empty grid." status: featured example: false published: 2026-08-15T17:03:00+10:00 person: Chris Bowen claimType: no-evidence-required year: 2023 tags: [bowen, snowy, energy, capacity, "2023"] source: url: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/31/snowy-hydro-2-project-scheme-billion-cost-blowout-kosciuszko-national-park date: "2023-08-31" publisher: The Guardian title: "Snowy Hydro 2.0 costs blowout confirmed to be almost $13bn" quote: "providing enough renewable energy and storage to power three million homes for a week" evidence: path: 2023/three-million-homes/source.md kind: note captured: "2026-08-14"

Chris Bowen and Katy Gallagher, 31 August 2023, the $12 billion reset day. Guardian: Snowy 2.0 will provide “enough renewable energy and storage to power three million homes for a week.” Snowy Hydro’s own page still says it: 2,200 MW, three million homes, “about 26 million home batteries,” “more than half” of AEMO’s 649 GWh storage need, “350 GWh.” Bowen, June 2026, same houses: “3 million homes per week,” “downward pressure on prices.”

This card files that week. It does not file “storage is a con.”

What did have a receipt:

  • 2017’s house-count was 500,000, on 2,000 MW. The tank was already “almost a week” / 350 GWh. The 2023 slogan kept the tank and multiplied the houses. Power and energy swapped seats.
  • ABC, June 2026, former energy executive Ted Woodley: theoretically it can run a week. “In practical terms it probably never will.” The upper pond has to be refilled when prices are low enough. That can take “weeks or months.” That is one engineer. The slogan does not mention a refill.
  • HumeLink — the line that gets the week to the homes — is a separate $5 billion on NSW bills. The three million are not yet attached.

Grammar: three million, a week, 26 million batteries. Logic: a full Tantangara is a condition, not a headline. Rhetoric: more than half.