Tauhara

Key stats

• 174MW at full capacity
• 3.5 percent of New Zealand’s electricity, enough to power 220,000 homes
• 500,000 tonnes per year of CO2 emissions expected to be displaced, equivalent to removing 220,000 petrol cars from our roads
• $924 million investment
• Three and a half years to construct – officially opened on 22 November 2024
• 2.65 milion work hours by 4,000 people

New Zealand’s most significant infrastructure investments of recent times

Contact’s geothermal steam turbine power station at Tauhara, in Taupō, is one of New Zealand’s most significant infrastructure investments of recent times. It can produce up to 174 megawatts (MW) of electricity, which is around 3.5 percent of the country’s electricity and enough for around 220,000 households.  


Tauhara will displace around 500,000 tonnes per year of CO2 emissions as fossil fuel generation is reduced. This is equivalent to removing over 200,000 cars from New Zealand’s roads.  

Tauhara officially opened on 22 November 2024. Check out this 1News story for the full details:

In 2024, Tauhara was the largest single addition of geothermal energy in the world. *Source ThinkGeo 

Geothermal power stations, like Tauhara, operate all day, every day, because they are not reliant on the wind blowing or the sun shining to generate power, meaning they create a reliable source of low carbon electricity.  Geothermal energy plays a crucial role in New Zealand’s transition away from fossil fuels and its low carbon footprint aligns with New Zealand’s goal of achieving a net-zero carbon economy by 2050.

The world’s largest geothermal single shaft turbine


The geothermal steam turbine power station houses the world’s largest single shaft geothermal turbine. 

The biggest blade diameter on the turbine is over three metres long tip-to-tip. It spins at 3,000 revolutions per minute (RPM), which is 50 times a second and close to the speed of sound.

The people behind the power station at Tauhara

The power station was a significant undertaking over three years with 2.65 million work hours completed by over 4,000 individuals from 27 countries, which peaked at 652 people on a single day. 9 primary contractors, across 8 different work fronts, worked on the development of the site alongside a multitude of contractors. There are a total of 11 asset maintenance staff and 6 operators are based at the site full-time. 

The video below shows some members of the Tauhara team talking about their experiences working on the new geothermal power station.

The health, safety and wellbeing of everyone working on the site was at the heart of the successful development of the power station. Contact received the Wellbeing Award at 2024 New Zealand Workplace Health & Safety Awards in recognition of the approach to worker care during the massive construction effort.

The geothermal power station comprises:

• turbine hall for one of the world’s largest single shaft geothermal turbines 
• 220m-long cooling tower circulating 35 million litres of water per hour 
• triple-flash separation plant, including 7 primary pressure vessels 
• electrical buildings  
• pump station, with 5.1MW installed capacity  
• geothermal fluid holding pond (115,000t capacity)  
• 14 km of cross-country pipelines connecting to production and reinjection wells.