Contact Energy Limited has announced that it is taking the next steps to replace the 1950s-built Wairkei A and B geothermal power stations in Taup with a new station of up to 180MW at Te Mihi (the GeoFuture project), an important part of the company's renewable energy strategy. In December 2022, Contact received resource consent to continue operations at the Wairkei geothermal field for the next 35 years. A total of up to $114m of development costs has been approved to advance the project towards a final investment decision which is expected in early 2024.

Funding has been allocated for consenting and mitigation costs, front-end engineering design of the geothermal steamfield and costs to support the in-progress competitive tender process. A significant proportion of the costs relate to new drilling and well pad preparation which will de-risk the development schedule and assist in maturing the project design. To achieve this, Contact will be working with MB Century to start drilling a series of wells on the Wairkei geothermal field from September 2023 onwards.

Chief Development Officer Jacqui Nelson said that the programme builds on Contact's recent development experience with $1.2bn of geothermal projects in construction in the Taup region. The development and build of the new plant at Te Mihi will bring significant local investment to the Waikato region and will see all of Contact's geothermal production moved off-river. The proposed station is projected to generate 1.4TWh per annum of baseload renewable electricity (based on a ~170MW plant), a net increase of 0.4TWh per annum, after the existing Wairkei power station is decommissioned and the new station comes on line in the second half of 2026.