ROTORUA - Millions of dollars are likely to be spent as power companies race to develop the central North Island's geothermal fields to keep the country powered up.
Consultation is underway for a new Mighty River Power station at Kawerau, which, if it gets the go-ahead, will have an estimatedcapacity of up to 80MW -- although the field is believed to have a capacity of up to 300MW.
Meanwhile, exploratory drilling is underway near Mangakino to see whether a station there would be viable. Results are expected towards the end of the year.
Mighty River Power, New Zealand's third-largest electricity generator, has also been working on the existing Mokai and Rotokawa stations.
The Mokai power station's extension has just been completed and can now provide just under 100MW of power -- the equivalent for about 110,000 households -- and Mighty River Power is also hoping to "at least double" the capacity of its plant at Rotokawa to 66MW.
About 10 per cent of the company's power comes from geothermal sources. Nationally just over 7 per cent of the total power take comes from it.
Mighty River's external affairs general manager Neil Williams said geothermal power was the area the company was "most actively pursuing" as a future power source.
But it could be a costly and time-consuming exercise with each exploratory well costing between $3 and $5 million.
"Scientists say there is a lot of potential but we don't know exactly what is there until we drill the hole."
Another firm, Contact Energy, has started drilling the first of four new geothermal wells at Te Mihi, north-west of Taupo, in a project expected to add 18MW of extra energy.
A spokesman for Meridian Energy, New Zealand's largest electricity generator, said the company was focusing on wind development and had not thought about getting involved with geothermal power generation at this stage.
Rotorua geologist Ashley Cody said he believes up to a third of New Zealand's electricity will come from geothermal sources in the near future.
