$1b Taupo geothermal project picks up steam
By MIKE WATSON - The Dominion Post
Relevant offers
National
A $1 billion geothermal power station planned by Contact Energy for Taupo is expected to bring $30 million a year into the region and create 230 fulltime jobs.
The proposed 250-megawatt Tauhara Stage 2 development will generate enough electricity to light up 240,000 homes.
Project manager James Kilty told a Taupo District Council meeting yesterday that the Tauhara power station would produce about 90 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions than a coal-fired station.
Mr Kilty said electricity could be produced more efficiently and cheaply using geothermal energy, but power prices were not likely to drop because of the transmission and distribution costs.
Power generated from Tauhara Stage 2 will be fed into the national grid after an upgrade of the Wairakei Ring transmission line by Transpower.
Resource consent applications for Tauhara Stage 2 would be lodged with the Environmental Protection Agency early next year for public submission hearings.
If consent is granted by late 2010, construction could begin early in 2011 for commissioning in 2015.
The 18-hectare site on bare farmland is five kilometres east of Taupo near Mt Tauhara.
The project would add 1300 jobs and contribute $150m to the Taupo economy during two years of construction.
It is estimated the power station would create 230 new permanent jobs and add $30m a year to the Taupo region.
Contact Energy is currently building a smaller 23MW Tauhara Stage 1 power station on Centennial Dr, about 2km from the Stage 2 site.
Sponsored links
Motorists end woman's wild drive
$3m project on hold after cash doubts
Weather warning for Wellington
Girl hit by car outside church third case in area
Kiwis lured by $74,000 Afghanistan jobs
Granddad's P grief prompts reward
Girls look a winning trifecta at Trentham
Trade deal talks with US hit snag
Two trampers with allergies rescued
New manual rules the air for trolley dollies
Suppression lifted on Blues player
Severe weather forecast for South and lower North Island
Dalziel castigates 'celebrity promoters'
Father, children arrested after police car smashed
Photojournalist Margaret Moth dies
Woods "lived a lie", nervous about fan response
Jetskier sucked under Otago dam
Speedsters chance of being caught one-in-five
Devastated Pacific island facing starvation
Arrest after bishops' tombs desecrated
Granddad's P grief prompts reward
$3m project on hold after cash doubts
Van Dyks fined for bulldozing gorse
Weather warning for Wellington
Motorists end woman's wild drive
Girl hit by car outside church third case in area
Girls look a winning trifecta at Trentham
Troubled teens may be sent back to school
Tax changes likely to make most slightly better off
Karori sanctuary backer hits out at price rises
Kiwis lured by $74,000 Afghanistan jobs
Asians don't feel welcome, says Sharples
When the foreshore was just somewhere you played cricket
Rafting, running and racing at Eastbourne Games
Can the Hurricanes turn their Super 14 season around?
Newest First
Oldest First