New Zealand Geothermal Association (NZGA)

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY Energy Supply Geothermal energy contributes 18% (7,660 GWh) to NZ’s annual electricity supply; this exceeds the contributions of wind and solar PV combined (Figure 1). Annual industry income from the wholesale electricity sales recently surged to NZ $539 million due to recent rises in the wholesale prices. High-temperature systems also provide over 5,600 TJs (heat) per year to industrial processes, mainly pasteurisation, drying and evaporating water for the dairy and forest industries. Low- temperature systems supply roughly 8,000 TJs (heat) to residences and commercial customers, and heat pumps now supply another 400 TJs for space heating and cooling. On a primary energy basis (i.e. before energy conversion losses), geothermal is the largest indigenous energy source in New Zealand, exceeding oil and gas as well as coal. of Foreign Affairs or by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, this sector increasingly provides services and expertise internationally to clients in Japan, Indonesia, USA, the Philippines, Kenya and Latin America. Prominent firms within the service sector include: MB Century (drilling, well services, steamfield engineering), Western Energy Services (well services), Jacobs (geoscience and engineering), Sequent (reservoir software), Solenis (process chemistry-chemicals), Nalco (water chemicals), GNS Science (geoscience and chemical laboratory), Mitchell Daysh (environmental), MTI (engineering), Dobbie Engineering (process engineering), Thorndon Cook (engineering), AECOM (engineering), Upflow (market intelligence), Glucina & Associates (engineering), Flow State Solutions (reservoir modelling software), ProGen (turbine maintenance) and Auckland University - Geothermal Institute (engineering training). developers, equipment manufacturers/suppliers, and large construction contractors. In contrast, the moderate temperature sector uses low grade geothermal heat for small-scale, residential and commercial applications such as bathing, space heating and water heating. The insulate sector uses the thermal properties of the earth or ground and surface waters to store and transfer heat via heat pumps for residential and commercial customers. The regulatory sector maintains order in the issuance of extraction permits and environmental protection. Over the past 10 years, the NZ geothermal industry has attained sufficient economic mass to support a specialist service industry. The geothermal service sector employs most of the industry’s staff and provides professional & trades training, drilling services, well services, field services, machine/fabrication shops, engineering consulting, reservoir modelling, reservoir software, controls software, construction, regulatory & legal advisors, and scientific research. Sometimes assisted by the Ministry Figure 1: NZ Quarterly Generation by Fuel Geothermal Resources New Zealand resides on an active plate boundary and contains 129 conductive and convective thermal systems resulting from high crustal heat flows. The 15 high-temperature convection systems in the North Island are thought to result from bodies of magma ponding in the upper 10 km of the crust. Elsewhere, the deep circulation