Geothermal power plant in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea. Approximate location -3.1245, 152.6464.
GeothermalEast New BritainPapua New Guinea
Lihir is a 30 MW geothermal power plant in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea. It is operated by Lihir Gold Ltd.. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 56k homes (estimated). It ranks #7 of 15 Papua New Guinea power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 2005, it is around 21 years old — relatively modern. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, geothermal supplies about 2.1% of Papua New Guinea's electricity; the national grid averages 514 gCO₂/kWh (23.7% low-carbon) (2024).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1022423.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and fuel fields on this page are source-record values from the upstream open dataset. They are useful for identification and ranking, but they have not been upgraded to a 2026 registry/GEM-location verified value.
capacity: WRI Global Power Plant Database source-record (legacy); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
Geothermal plants tap underground heat to raise steam for a turbine; they provide steady, low-carbon baseload but are limited to geologically active regions.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Operated by Lihir Gold Ltd..
This geothermal plant taps underground heat to raise steam that drives a turbine. It sits in a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen Af) — Southern Hemisphere, latitude 3.1°S — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
This site has effectively no heating season (tropical/equatorial climate), so winter heat loss is not the driver here. The thermal concern shifts to year-round process heat and humidity/heat-driven corrosion of hot equipment.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in an aggressive, high-corrosion environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C5 — Very high), with marine salt corrosion the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
Papua New Guinea has 1 geothermal power plant in this dataset, together about 30 MW of capacity.
Coordinates -3.1245, 152.6464 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Lihir is a 30 MW source-record geothermal power plant in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea, commissioned in 2005.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 56,314 homes (estimated).
Lihir is operated by Lihir Gold Ltd..
