Japan just beginning to tap into high potential for geothermal power generation

Mainichi Japan,  September 3, 2011

Kuju Kanko Hotel President Yoshiaki Koike stands next to the Kuju
 Geothermal Power Plant, with the hotel in the background, in the Oita
Prefecture town of Kokonoe. (Mainichi)

The president of Kuju Kanko Hotel, Yoshiaki Koike, is also the manager of the Kuju Geothermal Power Plant.

Located at the foot of Mt. Kuroiwa in Aso-Kuju National Park in Oita Prefecture, the plant has a power output of 990 kilowatts, producing enough electricity to power the hotel and have some left over to sell to a private electrical supply company.

Koike took an interest in the geothermal power business in the early 1990s when he saw the amount of steam pouring out of a well for hot springs that were drilled in the area. Two wells -- 350 and 405 meters deep respectively -- were dug up for the power station, into which Koike invested 200 million yen in equipment including generators and cooling towers. Plant operations began in 1998.

Although Koike had hoped the plant would "kill two birds with one stone" by saving electricity costs and increasing hotel publicity, he had not expected the selling price of electricity to be so low. The electricity produced at Kuju would have to be sold at 16 yen per 1 kilowatt per hour of electricity to be profitable, but the going rate is a mere several yen. Koike would not be able to turn a profit if the plant hadn't given the hotel the reputation of being eco-friendly. Needless to say, he's eager to see what will happen to electricity prices once a feed-in tariff is adopted next July.

About a 15-minute drive west from Mt. Kuroiwa is the Hacchobaru Geothermal Power Plant. It is the biggest plant of its kind, costing 37 billion yen to build and generating 110,000 kilowatts of electrical power with its two generators. Hot water and steam retrieved from a well that has been dug about 2,000 to 2,500 meters underground to a geothermal reservoir heated by magma power the plant's turbines.

Located adjacent to the main geothermal power plant is Japan's only geothermal binary power plant. Standard geothermal plants require steam and water at temperatures of 150 degrees Celsius or higher to function. However, because binary plants use pentane, an organic solvent that evaporates more easily than water with a boiling point of 36 degrees Celsius, they can be used in locations where extremely hot water and steam are unavailable. Japan's sole binary plant, which began its operations in 2006, has a relatively small power output of 2,000 kilowatts, but Kyushu Electric Power Co. officials anticipate that such plants will make the local production and consumption of energy possible.

The estimated geothermal power-generation capacity of volcano-dotted Japan is about 23.47 million kilowatts, the world's third highest behind the U.S. and Indonesia. Furthermore, Fuji Electric Co., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., and Toshiba Corp. comprise 70 percent of the world's share in geothermal power generators. Compared to solar-power and wind-power generation, which are easily affected by the weather, geothermal power plants have a consistently high operation ratio of around 70 percent.

Of the areas in Japan with abundant geothermal resources, 80 percent were designated as national parks or quasi-national parks prohibiting development, and many are located adjacent to hot spring resorts. A power industry insider says that local businesses strongly oppose the construction of geothermal power plants, citing fears that their hot springs will dry up. This explains why, despite favorable conditions for geothermal power generation in Japan, the country's 17 geothermal plants produce a mere 535,000 kilowatts total per year, or just 0.3 percent of all the electricity produced nationwide every year.

To address this conundrum, the government last June eased restrictions on development in national and quasi-national parks. Developers are now permitted to tap into geothermal resources underground if they drill diagonally into the ground from outside national and quasi-national parks, or take other steps to preserve the parks' landscapes.

Using diagonal-digging technology, Mitsubishi Materials Corp. and Tohoku Electric Power Co. in July began probing for geothermal resources below Towada-Hachimantai National Park, located next to Sumikawa Geothermal Power Plant in the Akita Prefecture city of Kazuno. According to a senior official at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, there is growing momentum among private companies in the renewable energy business to create an "All-Japan" company dedicated to the development of geothermal power.

Click here for the original Japanese story

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