Contact lodges geothermal consent application under new fast-track rules

Friday 19th February 2010

Contact Energy application for a fast-tracked resource consent for the 250 megawatt Tauhara geothermal power station will be the first to be considered by Environment Minister Nick Smith under the new, streamlined Environmental Protection Authority process.

Contact announced the consent application to the EPA this morning, under a new process whereby applicants seek ministerial approval through the EPA for a decision within nine months. The changes are a key part of Smith's "phase one" Resource Management Act returns to speed up applications for infrastructure of national significance.

The company spent between six and seven years renewing resource consents for existing plant at the Wairakei geothermal steamfield and the Clyde Dam on the Clutha River, and is anxious not to repeat the experience. It gained a consent to replace the 168MW Wairakei plant with a 220MW plant nearby at Te Mihi relatively quickly, but deferred a construction start date last year as electricity market conditions softened.

Chief executive David Baldwin said the company would be presenting the results of "a comprehensive and world-leading study of land subsidence in geothermal areas that Contact has undertaken over the past two years."

"The results of this work give Contact confidence that land subsidence will not be an issue with the development."

Subsidence on the outskirts of Taupo was a major issue in the Wairakei consenting, although Contact contended successfully that there was no link between its geothermal extraction at Wairakei, on the opposite site of the town. The Tauhara plant is the second stage of developments in the Tauhara geothermal steamfield, which is adjacent to the Wairakei resource.

Stage one was the 23MW binary plant, which is close to completion.

Businesswire.co.nz

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