Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has hailed the start of work on a new $580 million geothermal power station, the country’s largest post Covid-19 investment, as a huge step towards a 100% renewable energy New Zealand.

Ardern turned the first sod at the site for Contact Energy’s Tauhara Power Station outside Taupō on Wednesday.

She said the geothermal power station would have a “substantial impact” on New Zealand’s goal to become 100% renewable-energy powered by 2030.

“We are paving the way to a cleaner, smarter future,” she said.

“Displacing fossil fuels on the national grid.”

Ardern, who was joined by Minister of Energy Resources Megan Woods and Labour list MP Tamati Coffey, said when completed in mid-2023 the power station would generate power round the clock, all year round.

She also said its environmental impact would be the equivalent of removing 200,000 cars from the road.

Woods said the development was “exactly the kid of momentum we need to reach these [climate] goals.”

Contact Energy chief executive Mike Fuge said the power station has been a decade in the planning and was an excellent example of “kiwi-led tech”.

“The best not only in New Zealand, but the world.”

He said it would provide a 450 tonne per annum carbon reduction and would provide power for 175,000 homes.

“And will do so long after most of us here have departed this Earth.”

Credit: Stuff.co.nz