Political and Environmental Necessity of Japanese Projects on Geothermal Research Development

Abstract

In Japan, geothermal power was first successfully generated when a mere 1.12 kWe of power was produced in 1966 at Matsukawa in the Tohoku district. A great achievement can be seen in the current total 380 MWe capacity of Japan's thirteen power stations (Fig.11) and the 530 MWe capacity including plants which are under construction. However, such capacity levels are still very low compared of the overall geothermal energy potential existing in Japan.

The major reasons for this are (1) a long lead time. (2) High risk and (3) high cost for development of geothermal fields. The National Park Law restricts exploration or exploration in national parks, where most promising geothermal areas are located. And what is worse, the recent low price of petroleum oil discourages Japanese geothermal developers from further investment. Therefore, it will be difficult to accomplish a national scheme to have 2,888 MWe of geothermal power generation of 2010.

On the other hand global environmental protection has recently become a very subject around the world. Energy consumption and environmental protection are ambivalent. It is quite important to develop environment friendly energy resources economically. Thus the duty of AIST in supporting the projects by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) is becoming more important considering the current situation.