An Assessment of the Current Costs of Geothermal Power Development in New Zealand

Abstract

A review of current geothermal development costs in New Zealand is presented. This has been undertaken with the objective of developing an envelope of unit costs for a number of geothermal power development scenarios covering a range of resource temperature, productivities and power plant cycle types. Based on the capital costs developed, detailed financial analyses have been carried out to assess levelised cost of power for each development option. The results of the study are presented and discussed in terms of the overall competiveness of geothermal power in the NZ power market and the cost effectiveness of different power cycle types for differing resource conditions.