Snowy Hydro chairman David Knox has admitted that the delayed Kurri Kurri power plant in the Hunter Valley will completely rely on natural gas when it first starts up and will not be able to use green hydrogen because it is not available.

The acknowledgement of the difficulty in meeting the Albanese government’s commitment on hydrogen came in the Senate Estimates environment committee where Snowy acting chief executive Roger Whitby revealed the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project is running about 12 months late and its cost has risen to about $5.9 billion.