Wairakei

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The Wairakei geothermal power plant, with the main two blocks at the left rear. The binary plant is in front.

The Craters of the Moon, a steamfield close-by, created by the use of geothermal energy changing the underground pressure situation.

Wairakei is the name of both the small settlement and geothermal area a few kilometres north of Taupo, in the centre of the North Island of New Zealand, on the Waikato River.

1 Geothermal field
2 Settlement
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Geothermal field

With several natural geysers, hot pools and boiling mud pools, it is also the home of a major geothermal electric power generating station. The station was the second large-scale geothermal facility worldwide, and was built in 1958. A second plan was built at another site in the field in 1996, and a binary plant was constructed in 2005 to use lower-temperature steam that had already gone through the main plant.^[1]^[2]

The use of steam from the field has had a number of visible effects on the local environment. Visible geothermal activity has increased (due to changes in the water table / water pressure allowing more steam to be created underground, upsurging at places like Craters of the Moon), while there has also been some land subsidence and reduction in steam volumes from the field after some decades of use. Some power stations in the field are now capped in their extraction capacities and a substantial part of the water / steam is being reinjected after use.^[1]

[edit] Settlement

The settlement, referred to as Wairakei Village, was constructed to house the workers of both the power station and the neighbouring Aratiatia hydro power station.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b Geothermal Fields (from the New Zealand Geothermal Association website. Accessed 2008-02-23.)
^ Geothermal Energy and Electricity Generation (from the New Zealand Geothermal Association website. Accessed 2008-02-23.)