Video – Building a geothermal power plant in New Zealand

New Zealand energy company Top Energy shared – already in March of this year – a great video showing the scale of the development of its Ngawha geothermal power plant project.

Originally planned for start of operation in 2021, the project is 8 months ahead of schedule through faster progress on development activities, as we reported in April this year.

Initially the plant was planned as a 25 MW extension of the existing first plant, but design improvements boosted that to 28 MW. But with well tests better than expected, it is now expected to provide an installed capacity of 31.8 MW.

The plant is being built by Ormat Technologies with an expected start of operation around August 2020. Ormat would share the revenue from power produced before handover, so has sufficient incentive to get the plant operational as soon as possible.