WHENEVER Supercars races at Taupō International Motorsport Park in New Zealand, one question always comes up: “What is all that white smoke behind the final corner coming from?”
It’s a fair question too, as pretty much any and all photos and TV shots of the front straight show what looks like smoke in the background.
The plume is a signature feature of photos from the Taupō circuit, and its cause is certainly nothing for concern.
The smoke comes from the Tauhara Power Station, which came fully online late in 2024 and generates electrical power via renewable energy.
In this case, that energy is geothermal: hot water from underground reservoirs in the Tauhara geothermal system is channelled via wells to the surface where it turns to steam, which then drives a massive turbine to generate electrical power.
The ‘smoke’ is actually excess steam being released as water vapour into the atmosphere.
The station can produce up to 174 megawatts of electricity at its peak, which is enough to power around 200,000 households for a full year.
The Tauhara station is the second phase of a wider geothermal energy project around Taupō and was constructed by the Sumitomo Corporation in recent years.
And if the name Sumitomo sounds familiar, it should: it’s a sister company of Sumitomo Rubber Industries, which produces and owns the Dunlop tyres used by the Supercars Championship.
