KEY POINTS:
Contact Energy has filed resource consent applications for its proposed Te Mihi geothermal power station north of Taupo.
The company first announced the project in February. It is proposing to build a 225 megawatt plant generating electricity to power over 200,000 average homes.
The power station could be operating by 2011, and in time would replace the 50-year-old Wairakei geothermal power station.
Contact chief executive David Baldwin said the Te Mihi project would be a secure, reliable supply of electricity and help cut carbon emissions.
It would significantly reduce the discharge of heat and geothermal trace elements into the Waikato River.
"The Te Mihi power station will be capable of generating 40 per cent more electricity than the existing Wairakei station. It will not, however, require any more geothermal fluid than that which is already permitted by Contact's recently granted Wairakei resource consents."
Mr Baldwin said that as geothermal energy was the most reliable form of renewable electricity. It doesn't depend on the weather and, as such, can help displace thermal generation.
The Te Mihi power station is part of Contact's plan to invest up to $2 billion in new renewable generation projects over the next five years. Contact plans to file resource consent applications for another geothermal power station at Tauhara in 2008 and will soon be making announcements on a wind farm development.
- NZPA
