Photo: 123RF
Greenhouse growers are frustrated with gas prices and availability, and hope geothermal heat can be a replacement.
Industry body groups Vegetables NZ and Tomatoes NZ are collaborating with GNS Science to investigate the possibility of finding a new heat source for greenhouses.
Energy costs can be up to 40 per cent of a grower's costs and Vegetables NZ chief executive Antony Heywood says they cannot get contracts that go further than the end of the year.
Antony says one grower has told him their gas bill has gone up 200 per cent in the past five years.
More than 90 percent of tomatoes, capsicum and cucumbers are grown as covered crops in this country and we have about 310 hectares of greenhouses, mostly in the North Island.
GNS says it is working on a mapping and information tool to signal to growers where easily accessible geothermal heat will be found.
Antony says growers need a secure and economic energy supply - and gas is not providing that.
