Photo: 123RF
New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world with access to a resource that could become a major new provider of reliable, low emissions energy.
Supercritical geothermal is touted to be able to supply about 2000 megawatts of new electricity generation from 2037 - and likely without emissions. It is water that is super hot and at very high pressure, able to provide three times the energy of conventional geothermal sources.
But it is still early days for the technology required to develop an industry.
The fluids are found at depths greater than 5 kilometres, and the uncertainty around that temperature and behaviour of these fluids pose challenges.
Geothermal is crucial to the country's energy mix, but adding supercritical is expected to be more than a decade away. At that time it could provide 35 per cent of the country's electricity needs, according to a recent report.
Kathryn talks to Dr Isabelle Chambefort - who is leading GNS' programme into the future geothermal energy.
Kathryn is also joined by John O'Sullivan, co-director of the Geothermal Institute at Auckland University, about the country taking a leading role in research around the world.
