SOE Puts Priority On Geothermal
October 15th, 2008
SOE Mighty River Power, which has embarked on developing a billion-dollar geothermal business, says its geothermal exploration and development programme is the largest and most expansive of its type in NZ in 20 years. It says geothermal development is “our single biggest priority.” By 2012, along with its Maori partners, the SOE aims to produce enough geothermal energy to supply reliably about 8%, or around 3,500GWh of NZ’s national electricity requirements each year.
A milestone in the programme was the completion of the $300m geothermal power station at Kawerau, which was originally due for commissioning this month, but actually started supplying power to the national grid in June. Now construction is proceeding on a second geothermal station at Rotokawa, called Nga Awa Purua, in a $450m development which will provide 132MW of capacity, bringing the total generation of the Rotokawa geothermal field to 165MW. It will extract a daily average of 45,000 tonnes of geothermal fluid from the reservoir, and will re-inject all fluids, apart from those consumed in cooling. On completion in mid-2010, it will be the second largest geothermal station in NZ, satisfying nearly 3% of NZ’s annual electricity needs. The Nga Awa Purua station will include the largest geothermal turbine in the world. The Fuji-manufactured equipment will be supplied by Sumitomo Corporation.
Exploration drilling is scheduled for the next financial year at Ngatamariki. The $30m programme involves drilling at least three deep wells to establish the extent of the geothermal reservoir ahead of the proposed lodging of consent applications in 2009 for a station expected to have a capacity of at least 80MW. As well as bringing new power plants on stream, the Mighty River team is taking existing power plants, such as Rotokawa, into higher production. For example, in existing fields the drilling of deeper wells than the original Crown wells has accessed a hotter, more productive geothermal resource.
Mighty River say it is reversing the brain drain of geothermal experts, recruiting internationally, and training recent university graduates to rebuild NZ’s geothermal talent pool. “In 2000, we had no geothermal-specific capabilities in the company. Today we have 90 skilled technical staff. By 2012, we expect to have at least 120 people in our geothermal team, with additional capability through an international partnership.”
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