Award for paving way for billion dollar geothermal developments 16/11/2011
The work of the geothermal geology team at GNS Science has been acknowledged with the presentation of The Royal Society of New Zealand 2011 President’s Award.
Senior geothermal scientist Dr Greg Bignall accepted the Royal Society of NZ 2011 President's Award on behalf of the geothermal geology team at GNS Science.
The award is presented annually to a particular branch of science that has contributed significantly to New Zealand. This year’s award is “for research-based technology enhancing renewable geothermal energy used in New Zealand.”
The award was presented by Royal Society President Dr Garth Carnaby. Leader of GNS Science’s geothermal energy research programme, Dr Greg Bignall, said it was an honour receive the award.
The geothermal geology team at GNS Science consists of about 12 specialists who are part of a wider geothermal energy group of about 30 scientists, technicians and support staff with experience in geothermal consultancy in about 20 countries.
The team has pioneered a range of innovative scientific techniques that have contributed to numerous geothermal developments in New Zealand. Some of the team’s exploration and measurement techniques have been applied worldwide.
GNS Science provides advice to three major geothermal power companies in New Zealand – Contact Energy, Mighty River Power, and Tuaropaki Power Company. It also provides specialist services for smaller landowner groups, including iwi groups.
It represents the biggest change in decades in the way geoscientists work in the geothermal industry
As well as providing consultancy services, the team conducts fundamental geoscience research to address issues of importance to the New Zealand geothermal industry concerning field management and improving the understanding of fluid-rock interactions.
Dr Bignall said his team was proud to have played a part in the doubling of New Zealand’s geothermal energy capacity during the past 12 years. Geothermal energy now provides about 14% of New Zealand’s electricity needs.
Dr Bignall said with the advent of fossil fuel tax, renewables such as geothermal energy had become much more attractive. However, geothermal had the advantage that it was a reliable baseload energy, and more manageable and easier to quantify that other energy sources.
In the past two years, the geothermal team at GNS Science has played a crucial role in developing a three-dimensional software package that is revolutionising the way scientists plan and manage geothermal energy fields.
Called Leapfrog Geothermal, it is fast becoming the software of choice for geothermal energy developments in many countries.
“It represents the biggest change in decades in the way geoscientists work in the geothermal industry,” Dr Bignall said. GNS Science routinely uses the software on all its geothermal consulting and research work in New Zealand and internationally.
GNS Science has also embarked on an ambitious long-term project, with industry partners, to explore for deeper and hotter geothermal resources in the Taupo Volcanic Zone. The aim is to greatly increase the amount of energy available per well.
Currently the deepest geothermal well in the central North Island is about 3.5km deep. But scientists hope to tap hotter geothermal fluids at depths of up to 5km below the surface.
Scientists believe that by 2025, deep geothermal resources – those between 3km and 7km deep – could supply at least 20% of New Zealand’s electricity needs.
Scientists estimate the potential of accessible geothermal resources in the central North Island is at least 10,000 megawatts – more than 10 times the current installed capacity of geothermal energy.
A predecessor organisation of GNS Science, Geophysics Division of DSIR, was instrumental of the development of the world's second geothermal energy plant at Wairakei, near Taupo, in the mid 1950s. Since then GNS Science has played a role in the development of nearly every geothermal plant in New Zealand.