Pressure - State - Response

Economic viability is the main factor that determines whether technically available resources and consented projects are actually developed

In New Zealand renewable energy is competitive as a source of electricity generation and large-scale renewable plants do not require financial assistance from government in order to be built. A government commissioned study providing inputs for modelling of electricity generation found that geothermal energy appears to be the cheapest new baseload generation technology followed by wind.

Reflecting this, generation by geothermal and wind plants continues to grow despite the low growth in electricity demand - geothermal capacity will increase during 2013 as Mighty River Power commissions its Ngatamariki plant and Contact Energy completes its Te Mihi plant.