Will Japan’s Untapped Ground Heat Replace Nuclear Energy? BY TETSUO JIMBO
April 28, 2012
Tetsuo Jimbo was born in 1961. He is a video journalist. He is the representative of the internet broadcasting channel “video.com”. He co-published the book “Media no Wana: Kenryoku ni Katan suru Shimbun, Terebi no Shinso”(Sangakusha) (Shackled Media: Newspapers and the TV’s Deep Alliance with the Power). Official blog: “Bideo jaanarisuto Shimbo Tetsuo no blog”: http://www.jimbo.tv/
Maru Geki Tooku On Dimando
576th Talk: April 28, 2012
From Nuclear Superpower to Geothermal Superpower
Guest: Hirofumi Muraoka (Professor at the North Japan Research Institute for Sustainable Energy (NJRISE), Hirosaki University)
Japan has long been portrayed as poor in natural resources. In fact Japan is one of the world’s prominent countries possessing one natural resource, namely terrestrial heat. In an interview he once gave to videonews.com, environmental scholar, Lester Brown declared that in Japan nuclear power plants are not suitable as a means of energy generation because of the country's location on an active volcanic belt where powerful earthquakes frequently occur. He indicated, on the other hand, that the best conditions are met for geothermal power generation and wondered why Japan’s energy policy purely and simply takes the opposite path.
In reality, Japan is a big geothermal power and comes third in geothermal sources in the World after the United States and Indonesia. However, Japan ranks only 8th in terms of heat capacity of facilities for geothermal electricity production coming after Iceland, a country with just more than 300 thousand people. This is the actual situation despite the fact that Fuji Electric Co., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Co., and Toshiba dominate the world market of geothermal turbine technologies.
Why wasn’t geothermal power generation promoted in Japan in spite of the availability of ground heat and cutting-edge technologies? According to Hirofumi Muraoka, professor at the North Japan Research Institute for Sustainable Energy, who has been involved in geothermal energy development research for years, the reason why the geothermal power generation did not advance is to find in the country’s energy policy. In the past, after the two oil shocks Japan at a certain period has promoted a geothermal power generation policy. However, in 1997 geothermal heat was removed from the list of “new energies”, which thereafter triggered the total termination of public assistance for the development of geothermal technologies. Consequently, for about 15 years geothermal research in Japan has completely stagnated.
Mr. Muraoka indicated that along with the financial difficulties associated with the economic slump, the government’s promotion of nuclear energy policy explain such a state of affairs. The geothermal power generation which is suitable in delivering stable energy base load was considered a hindrance or useless by the government whose policy was to secure base load via nuclear power plants.
Furthermore, the fact that most Japan’s geothermal sources are concentrated in national or public parks where exploitation is prohibited has impeded the development of geothermal energy.
However, from last March 27, after the issuance of a notification by the Bureau of Natural Environment of the Ministry of the Environment, restrictions on exploitation of national and public parks have been eased and the construction of geothermal power stations inside public parks was authorized. Also, on April 25, the Committee of the Ministry of Trade made a proposal fixing the price of electricity generated with ground heat to 27.3 yen for 1kW/h for a geothermal power plant of more than 150 thousand kW and the acquisition period was fixed to 15 years. The adoption of the proposal is highly possible. Mr. Muraoka, nourishing great expectations, said that if the 2 above-mentioned conditions are fulfilled, once more Japan is likely to witness a surge in geothermal power plants unseen in the past 15 years.
Hot spring unions reluctant to geothermal power generation will certainly remain a bottleneck, but Mr. Muraoka indicated that a geothermal power plant has almost no influence of on a hot spring. He said that this issue will gradually be solved through popularizing the advantages found in hot spring power generation among hot spring unions.
If Japan, which is one of the world’s prominent geothermal power, develops it ground heat potential it will possess a natural energy source capable of supplying a 24-hour stable energy, unlike solar or wind energies which are subject to the vagaries of the weather. Mr. Muraoka said that as a source of power, geothermal energy can well replace nuclear power generation if Japan puts its ground heat potential into full use.
Our guest Mr. Muraoka, one of the rare authorities in the field of geothermal studies in Japan, has discussed about the possibilities of geothermal power generation with journalist Tetsuo Jimbo and sociologist Shinji Miyadai (This week’s report on Fukushima by Kambara Hiroko is not going to take place).
Guest Profile:
Hirofumi Muraoka was born in 1951 in Yamaguchi Prefecture. He is a professor at the North Japan Research Institute for Sustainable Energy (NJRISE) of Hirosaki University. He graduated from the Yamaguchi University Faculty of Humanities and Science in 1975. He received his Ph.D in Science from the Graduate School of Science of Hiroshima University in 1977. After working for the Geological Survey of Japan, the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), he became the Chairman of Geothermal Resource Study Group at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. He has occupied his actual position since 2010. He is the Representative of Japan at the IEA Agreement for Geothermal Execution. He co-published the “Atlas of Japan’s Hydrothermal System”.
(Translated from Japanese by Willy Lukebana Toko)
