The Tauhara Power Station is a
geothermal power
Geothermal power is electricity generation, electrical power generated from geothermal energy. Technologies in use include dry steam power stations, flash steam power stations and binary cycle power stations. Geothermal electricity generation i ...
station north of
Taupō
Taupō (), sometimes written Taupo, is a town located in the central North Island of New Zealand. It is situated on the edge of Lake Taupō, which is the largest freshwater lake in New Zealand. Taupō was constituted as a borough in 1953. It h ...
in
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
. Previously known as Tauhara 2, the project was developed by
Contact Energy
Contact Energy Limited is a New Zealand electricity generation, electricity generator, a wholesaler of natural gas, and a retailer of electricity retailing, electricity, natural gas, broadband and Liquefied petroleum gas, LPG.
It is the second ...
and Tauhara Moana Trust and opened in November 2024. At its peak it can produce up to 174 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 200,000 homes.
Background
Stage 1 of the wider Tauhara project is operational as the
Te Huka Power Station. This is a 23 MW binary plant supplied with geothermal steam from the Tauhara field.
Tauhara Stage 2
The application for
resource consent
A resource consent is the authorisation given to certain activities or uses of natural and physical resources required under the New Zealand Resource Management Act (the "RMA"). Some activities may either be specifically authorised by the RMA or ...
s for a 250 MW power station was submitted in February 2010. The Minister for the Environment determined that this project was one of national significance, and referred it to an independent Board of Inquiry. The resource consents were granted in December 2010. It was the first infrastructure project to be processed under the new Board of Inquiry process administered by the
Environmental Protection Authority. In August 2019 Contact Energy began drilling four wells to further characterize the geothermal reservoir on the field and inform a final decision on whether to build a new power plant.
The project was expected to cost around $580 million.
In February 2021 Contact Energy announced that it planned to issue $400 million of new shares to raise capital to build the plant.
Construction of the station began in March 2021
In February 2022 Contact announced that the completion date would be delayed to mid-2023, but that the output of the station would increase to 168 MW.
In November 2023, the target for the station to be operational was pushed to the third quarter of 2024, with an output of 152 MW, rising to 174 MW later.
See also
*
Geothermal power in New Zealand
Geothermal power in New Zealand plays a significant part of the energy generation capacity of the country, constituting 25% of the total energy supply and 19% of electricity production in 2021. This positions New Zealand as the top user of geothe ...
*
List of power stations in New Zealand
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
References
External links
Contact Energy- Tauhara Power Station
{{Electricity generation in Waikato
Geothermal power stations in New Zealand
Taupō
Buildings and structures in the Taupō District