Wairakei
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Wairakei".

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

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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 power station was built at another site in the field in 1996, and a binary cycle power station 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. So far, total electrical production has been sustained or increased, with the investment in additional power stations such as the binary plant of 2005 designed for lower-temperature generation. 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]

The hot geothermal fluid that is extracted is originally cold rainwater that had percolated downwards and been heated by hot rock; pumping back the warm water that emerges from the exhaust of the generator system thus reduces the heat drawn from the ground. Also, the Waikato river water is already too high in arsenic content to be safe to drink without special treatment, and so reinjection of the facility's water does not exacerbate this problem.[3][4]

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.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Geothermal Fields (from the New Zealand Geothermal Association website. Accessed 2008-02-23.)
  2. ^ Geothermal Energy and Electricity Generation (from the New Zealand Geothermal Association website. Accessed 2008-02-23.)
  3. ^ Arsenic in the New Zealand environment - Brett Robinson, Brent Clothier, Nanthi S. Bolan, Santiago Mahimairaja, Marc Greven, Christopher Moni, Monica Marchetti, Carlo van den Dijssel and Georgina Milne - Institute of Natural Resources, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
  4. ^ Inflows of geothermal fluid chemicals to the Waikato River catchment, New Zealand - M.H. Timperley and B.A. Hauser, New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 1996: Vol 30: 525-535.

External links

Coordinates: 38°37′36″S 176°06′13″E / -38.626686, 176.103491
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