NZGA Provides Geothermal Perspective on New Zealand Proposed Legislation

The New Zealand Geothermal Association (NZGA) has submitted comments and proposed revisions to the Parliament’s Environment Committee. The input of NZGA provides perspective from the geothermal community and helps ensure that the bills are written in consideration of the development process of geothermal projects and the relevance of the geothermal industry in New Zealand.The two bills – the Natural & Built Environment Bill and the Spatial Planning Bill – are being proposed as part of the process of reforming New Zealand’s Resource Management Act (RMA). NZGA has prepared two documents highlighting the group’s comments on each of the proposed bills:

Submission on Natural and Built Environments Bill

Submission on Spatial Planning Bill

Among the comments made by NZGA are proposed revisions to a risk-based decision-making process that takes into consideration the inherent risk of geothermal development and the internationally well-regarded approach of New Zealand in geothermal resource management. The NZGA also proposes that geothermal be identified specifically as one of the renewable energies eligible for a fast track consenting process.

In early 2022, the NZGA launched the GeoHeat Action Plan for 2022 to 2023 which aims to raise awareness and support for geoheat opportunities. This particular edition of the publications focused on the direct use of geothermal heat for industrial and commercial projects.