Wairākei Power Station in New Zealand changed the way geothermal heat could be turned into electricity when it was commissioned in 1958. Built beside the Waikato River, north of Taupō, the station drew on hot underground water beneath an active volcanic zone. Instead of relying on conventional fuel, engineers drilled wells into the geothermal field and used the pressure of the heated water to produce steam for turbines. According to Engineering New Zealand, the project became the first in the world to use flash steam from geothermal water to generate electricity.
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