Mighty River Power and the Tauhara North No. 2 Trust have the green light to build and operate the Ngatamariki Geothermal Power Station in New Zealand.

The Environment District Council for Waikato/Taupo granted resources consent for the 110MW power station to be built north-east of Taupo.

Work on the $400m project is expected to start before the end of the year and is due to go onstream by winter 2013.

When complete The Ngatamariki plant will take Mighty River’s total operating capacity to 500MW.

The consent for the proposed plant had been applied in November 2009 by Rotokawa Joint Venture, a partnership between Mighty River Power and the Tauhara North No.2 Trust.