{"id":243902,"date":"2026-01-21T06:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T06:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/243902\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T06:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T06:21:08","slug":"mercury-energy-powers-up-new-geothermal-generator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/243902\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercury Energy powers up new geothermal generator"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mercury<\/p>\n

\nAt full capacity the Ng\u0101 Tamariki power station was expectec to generate enough electricity to supply about 158,000 average homes.
\nPhoto: Supplied \/ Mercury Energy\n<\/p>\n

Mercury Energy has powered up its new geothermal generator near Taup\u014d, which is now delivering electricity generation to the national grid.<\/p>\n

Built at a cost of $220 million, the new unit is expected to be fully operational by March.<\/p>\n

Mercury said the unit will add a further 46 megawatts of renewable energy – enough to power about 55,000 homes – ahead of winter, lifting the station’s installed capacity from 86\u202fMW to 132\u202fMW.<\/p>\n

At full capacity, Mercury said the Ng\u0101 Tamariki power station<\/a> would generate around 1120 gigawatt hours of electricity a year, enough to supply about 158,000 average homes – more than all residential homes in Christchurch.<\/p>\n

The station is powered by nine geothermal wells drilled more than 3000 metres below the surface, where temperatures reach up to 290 degrees Celsius.<\/p>\n

Mercury chief executive Stew Hamilton said the expansion is part of a $1 billion investment in three renewable generation developments planned by the company.<\/p>\n

“These include the Ng\u0101 Tamariki expansion, stage two of the Kaiwera Downs wind farm in Southland, and the Kaiwaikawe wind farm in Northland.”<\/p>\n

The Ng\u0101 Tamariki geothermal station is owned by Mercury. However, the resource has been developed in partnership with Tauhara North 2 Trust and with mana whenua Ng\u0101ti Tahu Ng\u0101ti Whaoa.<\/p>\n

The trust jointly owns the resource consents, receives a revenue stream from the station, and holds options to take an equity stake.<\/p>\n

Investigations into geothermal development at Ng\u0101 Tamariki date back to 1986, with the power station first commissioned in 2013.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At full capacity the Ng\u0101 Tamariki power station was expectec to generate enough electricity to supply about 158,000…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[48,138,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-243902","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-current-affairs","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-podcasts","16":"tag-public-radio","17":"tag-radio-new-zealand","18":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}