On July 8, 2005, MHI handed over a completed steam turbine to ORMAT, who are responsible for design, procurement and construction of the Mokai II geothermal power plant, owned by Tuaropaki Power Co., Ltd .

Several geothermal power plants are concentrated around Lake Taupo, New Zealand’s largest lake, which lies 450 kilometers south of Auckland.
The Mokai Power plant, with a power output of 60MW, has been online since February 2000. The Mokai II Power Plant, which will have a power output of 42MW, is being constructed alongside.

The power plant uses energy efficiently through a binary cycle system under which steam rising from wells drives a turbine to generate electricity and the heat exhausted by the turbine is transmitted to a low-boiling gas, also to generate electricity.
ORMAT specializes in geothermal power development which minimizes environmental impact by returning all steam used for power generation back underground. MHI received an order for a geothermal backpressure turbine for generating electricity directly from steam emitted from the wells. The turbine will produce 19MW of the plant’s total power output of 42 MW.
The equipment for generating power from low-boiling gas will be supplied by ORMAT.

New Zealand has achieved stable economic growth since implementing policies of privatization and deregulation from around 1984, leading to solid growth in electricity demand. Geothermal power is expected to play a crucial role in increasing New Zealand’s electricity output.