A geothermal power plant will be built in Kawerau following a deal signed last week which sees the Te Ahi O Maui partnership join forces with Israeli company Ormat.
The $100 million project, which is likely to get underway at the end of this year and be finished by 2018, will process enough electricity to power around 25,000 homes.
Matt Todd, the chief executive for Eastland Group -- which makes up half of the Te Ahi O Maui partnership alongside Kawerau A8D Ahu Whenua Trust -- says the plant will be both state of the art and environmentally sound.
"They [Ormat] have a number of other installations in New Zealand that have been around for around 30 years," he explained.
"We have great confidence in them and their ability to build us a power station that will produce power safely and reliably for a number of years.
Mr Todd says the plant's environmental footprint will be small.
"The geothermal fluid comes up, the heat is extracted from it. and it is used to power the generator. The geothermal fluid is then injected back into the reservoir.
"There is very little amount of non-condensable gas that is emitted into the atmosphere. These are very environmentally friendly plants."
Mr Todd says the plant will also bring a number of jobs to the Bay of Plenty region, with a drill and 40 people already onsite to tap into the reservoir underground.
Newshub.
