I suspect when most people think of Taupō, they incline towards the recreational - fishing, mountain biking, water sports, tramping etc. Perfectly understandable at one level given the lake, the nearby mountains and the region's wonderful biking and trekking tracks. It's a playground and long may that continue.
But Taupō is much more than a haven for those who love the outdoors. Over the years the town has developed economic 'breadth and depth' which gives it resilient, so important in turbulent times. Whilst tourism is one of the 4 pillars underpinning the Taupō economy the other 3 are forestry/agriculture, light industry/manufacturing and geothermal.
Each is worth profiling and celebrating in their own right, but this last week the focus was specifically on the 'geothermal leg'. As part of Geothermal Week, I joined a Contact Energy tour of its growing geothermal facilities. And gosh what an eye-opener that tour was...bringing to mind a phrase I heard so frequently when living in Germany: vis 'Hidden Champions' - namely impressive and important companies which tend to fly under the radar in terms of their contribution to the local or national economy.
Contact Energy is, of course, a known entity to us all but the actual scale of its geothermal operation in the Taupō area is probably under appreciated by many of us. We are aware of its presence, aware of its role but with thoughtful landscaping much of its operation tends to be 'hidden in plain sight'. And so the tour was instructive - witness some of the accompanying photos. The scale of its operation is expanding significantly - and thus, similarly, its contribution to the local economy. A steady-state workforce of some 200-250 is currently augmented by a 'surge' skilled workforce of some 600-900 which is building and bringing new fields on stream. An impressive 100 km of geothermal piping is already under Contact management and this is no standard piping. Due to the heating and cooling of the pipes there can be a 1 metre expansion/contraction for every single 1 km of piping laid. You need some smart engineering to manage that.
New Zealand (and thus by default - Taupō) is recognised as a global leader - along with Iceland - in the field of geothermal technology. And that technology today is very different from the technology which was in play when the original facility at Wairakei was brought on stream back in the late 1950s - which did not, back then, involve the 're-injection' of water brought to the surface and as a consequence saw outflow go into the Waikato River.
Whilst occasionally one reflects a bit thoughtfully upon the fact that Lake Taupō was born of a super-volcanic explosion some 27,000 years ago, the gift to us today of living in this 'active' locality is this geothermal resource which is being developed by Contact as well as Mercury Energy. Today this geothermal energy contributes around 19% of New Zealand's total electricity generation - a meaningful contribution to the now over 80% of our electricity which does come from renewables.
So this 'hidden champion' is a demonstrable local asset...it's a big contributor to the local economy...it brings into the region a young, highly skilled workforce and is an active contributor to the greening of our electricity grid. The full dimension of this would have escaped me had I not joined this tour. Many thanks to Ampify Taupo for helping organise this in conjunction with Contact.
Credit to Rupert Holborow for the article.
