Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Stew Hamilton: Mercury Energy CEO on the Government's plan to double the use of geothermal energy by 2040

Transcript

Stew Hamilton: Mercury Energy CEO on the Government's plan to double the use of geothermal energy by 2040 · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Resources Minister Shane Jones putting money into Geo Thermal with
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: a plan to double generation by twenty forty to fifty
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: million has been set aside, nearly half already committed. It
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: includes loans for new plants and Cowardo and funding for
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: exploration in the Bay of Plenty. Stu Hamilton is the
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Mercury Energy CEO and joins me this morning. Morning, step
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Good morning Ryan, Good to have you on the show.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: What did you think of the announcement.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: It's exciting and we're a massive supporter of gs Thermill
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: keep part of our in as your portfolio and we
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: think it's got a great role to play in the
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: future of New Zealand and cel trists industry.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: You've just opened a new unit at your plant, haven't you?
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: And done it in two years? Built it in two years?
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Are they easy to build?
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: They can be quite challenging. It depends on how well
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: you know the resource or where the hot rock and
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: where the porous rocker is to be able to pull
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: the hot water out of the ground and plug it
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: into your plant. But for us, that the natan Reki
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: plant that we open yesterday, that took from the moment
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: that when you sort of spark the idea to the moment.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: We sparked the elect into the grid this less than
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: two years, which is a really great project.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: We struggle to build roundabouts in that timeframe. How do
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: you how do you find the hot rock versus the
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: poorest rock?
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Like?
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Is that the hard part?
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: That is a hard part, and that was part of
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: it's a big part of this GFRM A strategy is
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: helping to de risk that initial upfront finding of the
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: hot rock because GFM will really needs when you're tapping
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: into the Earth's battery, you need to find this hot rock.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: It also needs to be porous because what you're doing
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: is you're pulling hot water out of the ground. You
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: need that hot water to slow past that poorous hot rock.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: And so that kind of exploration drilling is really a
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: key cost up front that has been sort of helped
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: and dear risk through this plan.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: How do you so, why does it need government money
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: to do it? Is it because otherwise it would be
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: too expensive for you to go looking for hot rock.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: That's right when you're drilling a whole. The tolls are
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: talking about drilling, they're about twenty million dollars a hole
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: and you need to find about It needs to drill
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: about twenty to maybe about twenty of those holes for
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: a GFM will field. So you're talking about a massive
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: investment to actually do exploration. And it's quite possible that
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: when you invest at three or four hundred million that
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: you might not find the rock that you need. So
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: it is exploration and that's where this money can help.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: How much do you empower? Will we get out of
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: this new unit that you've started?
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: The power it's coming out when you combine that whole
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: site that produces enough electricity to power about one hundred
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: and fifty thousand houses, which is equivalent of christ Gift.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: So these general plants can provide significant power. But also
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: the really good thing about them is it provides at
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: twenty four to seven, so it doesn't matter what the
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: seasons are doing or what the weather's doing. It just
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: produces clean, reliable energy twenty four hours a day.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Just finally, I know that prices are going up for
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: your customers nearly ten percent on average from first of April.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Are you going to increase that any further this year
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: or are you going to do it in April next year?
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Normally reassess it every year, so we'll reassess it an
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: April year next year. And that really takes to account
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: a few things, one of which is the wholesale price
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: of electricity, but also it takes into account what's happening
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: with lions charges and transmission costs, because there's a fairy
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: amount of investments going on too that in New Zealand
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: at the moment too.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Appreciate your time, Stuart Hamilton, chief executive at Mercury.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: to news Talks. It'd be from five am weekdays, or
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio