Northland MP Willow-Jean Prime, Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis, Top Energy chief executive Russell Shaw and Ngāwhā Marae chairman Richard Woodman at the opening of Top Energy’s $189 million geothermal power station. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Northland MP Willow-Jean Prime, Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis, Top Energy chief executive Russell Shaw and Ngāwhā Marae chairman Richard Woodman at the opening of Top Energy’s $189 million geothermal power station. Photo / Peter de Graaf
A new era of energy self-reliance for the Far North was launched near Kaikohe yesterday with the official opening of a $189 million geothermal power station.
The new plant's 32 megawatts of power, added to Top Energy's existing 25MW capacity at Ngawhā, is enough to supply all the electricity the Far North needs 97 per cent of the year.
Surplus power is sent to the rest of Northland via the national grid.
Although the Covid pandemic pushed the project over budget it was completed six months ahead of schedule and is producing significantly more power than expected.
Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis, who formally opened the power station on Friday, said it was one of the biggest infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the Far North.
With the opening of a 32MW expansion, geothermal power from Ngāwhā is now enough to meet the Far North's electricity needs 97 per cent of the year. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Top Energy chief executive Russell Shaw said the ''intense'' construction project had to overcome consenting, regulatory, financial and legal challenges, as well as a global pandemic.
It was an international effort with the plant designed and built by an Israeli firm, wells as deep as 1.75km drilled by specialists from Iceland, and the earthworks and many kilometres of pipes completed by Whangārei companies.
The project's scale was illustrated by the one million cubic metres of soil which had to be moved, Shaw said.
During earthworks contractors discovered an ancient kauri log which had been given to Ngāti Rangi and had solved a long-standing scientific mystery about a reversal of the Earth's magnetic poles 42,000 years ago.
The plant was first hooked up to the national grid a few hours before midnight on December 31, 2020.
''So it was a very, very special New Year's Eve,'' Shaw said.
The power plant had been expected to produce 25MW of power but hotter than expected geothermal fluid had bumped that up to 32MW.
Shaw said the new plant gave Northland an independent, affordable and renewable power supply, ending the region's reliance on electricity transported from the south.
He praised the Top Energy Consumer Trust — which oversees the company on behalf of its owners, the people of the Far North — for their courage in backing the expansion.
Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis unveils a plaque marking the opening of Top Energy's $189 million geothermal power station expansion at Ngāwhā, near Kaikohe. Photo / Peter de Graaf
About 140 people attended Friday's opening hosted by local hapū Ngāti Rangi and Parahirahi Ngāwhā Waiariki Trust, which owns the neighbouring Ngāwhā hot springs.
Shaw said the new power station was the culmination of decades of planning and consenting, working with the local trust and hapū, community engagement, and negotiation with regulators.
Top Energy chairman Richard Krogh said the Far North was experiencing a transformation thanks to the Provincial Growth Fund and ''shovel-ready'' projects, all of which were underpinned by a reliable local power supply.
Once such project, Ngāwhā Business and Enterprise Park, is under construction on the other side of SH12.
Top Energy has consent, subject to conditions, to build one more geothermal power station at Ngawhā.
Those conditions include three years of monitoring to ensure the new plant has no adverse effects on the geothermal field.
It would also have to be backed by a robust business case depending on, among other things, future power prices.
Northland has seen a flurry of renewable energy projects announced in recent times, including large-scale solar farms at Pukenui, Kaitaia and Dargaville and a wind farm in the Kaipara. Unlike wind and solar farms, however, geothermal power plants operate 24 hours a day.
