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Consents granted for Kawerau Geothermal Power Project - November 2006 Mighty River Power has recently commenced construction of a the biggest geothermal energy project New Zealand has seen for the last 30 years, comprising a new geothermal power station at Kawerau on land near the existing industrial complexes at Kawerau. Simon Berry’s team acted for Mighty River Power in relation to the project which raised a number of fascinating issues, including the potential for subsidence associated with the extraction of geothermal fluid, the impact of the proposed off-take on existing and potential future operators and tangata whenua issues. Although a number of appeals were lodged, the appeals were settled without the need for a hearing, largely as a result of a rigorous case management programme imposed by the Environment Court. Simon’s comment: The project represents an RMA success story. Despite the complexity of the project and the lodging of appeals to the Environment Court the final consents commenced only 14 months from the initial lodging of the resource consent applications. This is an example of a complex case where the Court’s case management procedures facilitated early identification of contested issues and useful processes for addressing them. I was also most impressed by the efficiency and professionalism of the Environment Bay of Plenty officers we dealt with.
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