Lihir — Papua 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.

Data provenance

Capacity and fuel are the upstream open-dataset record, not yet matched to a 2026 registry or GEM entry.

capacity: WRI GPPD; fuel: WRI GPPD

In context: how this plant compares

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.

Owner

Operated by Lihir Gold Ltd..

Local climate & thermal context

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.

Site climate & environmental severity

This site sits in an aggressive, high-corrosion environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C5 — Very high), with marine salt corrosion the leading environmental stress.

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.

How it compares & nearby plants

Papua New Guinea has 1 geothermal power plant in this dataset, together about 30 MW of capacity.

Nearby power plants

• Ulagunan · Oil · 8.4 MW · East New Britain

Location

Coordinates -3.1245, 152.6464 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.

Frequently asked questions