Nearby Lake Taupo is a gigantic geothermal power plant. It supplies 5% of NZ's total power requirements (which is really not very much when you think about it), and is the second oldest geothermal plant in the world. It looked like something out of a sci-fi movie.
The Wairakei-Tauhara geothermal system includes the Wairakei geothermal field located 8 km north of Taupo and the Tauhara field to the southeast, with the boundary between the interconnected fields placed at the Waikato River. The Wairakei field is exploited by the Wairakei,Poihipi Road, and Wairakei Binary power stations.
The Wairakei station was first commissioned in 1958 and is now owned by Contact Energy. The field has been a consistent and reliable producer, with annual generation averaging 1250 GWh equivalent to a load factor of 93%. Present output is 140 MWe. At least 150 wells have been drilled in the field. The maximum temperature measured at Wairakei is 271 °C, but wells generally produce fluid at temperatures between 209 and 261°C. About 5300 tonnes of fluid per hour is currently taken from the reservoir for this station. Of this fluid, about 1500 tonnes per hour is steam and 3800 tonnes per hour is water at a temperature of about 130°C after separation in surface equipment. Some of the steam is taken directly from shallow dry steam production wells (up to 500 m depth) and piped to the turbines. -NZ Geothermal Association
A New Source of Energy
We also saw a chicken.
3 comments:
Hey, it looks like you're sporting a new mohawk. And it looks like those mussels you cooked didn't quite agree with Taylor! The chicken resembles Strawberry and Grapes - halfway around the world to find an old friend!!
LOL I was just going to say the same thing about the mohawk. This is in NO way me condoning you getting one though!!! I see you are also working on facial hair. What kind of job did you get? Yay on the mussels... Glad to see you still have the opportunities to expand your cooking skills.
-Cyn
i like the chicken...
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