IHA members co-host landmark pumped storage forums in Sydney and Brisbane

Australia has undergone a solar revolution. Rolling out solar and wind at record rates — the cheapest forms of new generation — the country is ahead of schedule on renewable energy deployment. What it now urgently needs is storage. In February 2025, IHA and GHD co-hosted two invitation-only, high-level forums in Sydney and Brisbane — bringing together policymakers, industry leaders, and investors to address this gap head-on and build political momentum behind long-duration energy storage.

The forums drew Australia's leading voices in energy policy. Penny Sharpe, Minister for Energy of New South Wales, joined discussions on backing wind and solar with long-duration storage as the foundation of reliable energy supply across Australian states. The outcomes from panel discussions and working groups were formally documented and submitted by IHA to the Queensland and NSW governments, as well as to the National Energy Market (NEM) review — with changes understood to be under active consideration.

The stakes are significant. Australia's own energy market operator has concluded that to meet the country's 82% renewable energy target by 2030, firming capacity must quadruple — to up to 50 GW / 654 GWh of dispatchable storage by 2050. Current market design, participants noted, is not structured to deliver this investment by itself: high upfront capital costs for long-duration infrastructure require policy frameworks that reward reliability and storage, not just generation volume.

IHA member companies active in Australia — including Entura, WaterNSW, Aurecon, and GHD — brought detailed technical perspectives to both forums, translating global pumped storage experience into practical, Australia-specific recommendations that the country's policymakers can act on.