MAYBE GEOTHERMAL IN JAPAN

Geothermal: A More Grounded Power Source for Japan?
Krista Mahr (w/Lucy Birmingham), April 13, 2011 (Time)

"On Sunday, over 17,000 people took to the streets of Tokyo to let their government know they've had it with nuclear power. It was an unusual display of mass disgruntlement...[with] the radiation and other bad news that have been spewing forth from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant since it was crippled in the March 11 earthquake…[Signs read] ‘We are killed now by ATOMIC ENERGY MAFIA!’ …[and]… ‘Yes We Can Change to Clean Energy.’

"…[S]everal other demonstrators…[called for a] switch to geothermal power…Located on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” human inhabitants of…Japan [have], in fact, been using more direct geothermal heat than any other nation for centuries…[I]t has the third largest geothermal energy potential in the world after the U.S. and Indonesia. But in terms of harnessing that heat and turning it into power, Japan only ranks 8th, after countries with drastically smaller populations, like Iceland and New Zealand…Japan only generates about .1% of its electricity in 19 geothermal energy plants, many of which are located in the Tohoku region where the Fukushima nuclear power plant is located."

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"…Japan is also the world's third largest electricity consumer. (The U.S. and China come in first.) Japan imports more liquid natural gas (LNG) and coal than any other nation, and it's the third largest consumer and net importer of oil. Since the oil crisis in the 1970s, nuclear power has been the energy source Japan has looked to to decrease its dependence on foreign oil. In 2008, nuclear energy accounted for 24% of the nation's electricity consumption. Before March 11, the government was on track to raise that figure to 40% by 2017 and 50% by 2030, in part by building over a dozen new reactors.

"It's hard to imagine that plan surviving Fukushima, and renewable energy companies, which have been largely shut out of Japan, are licking their chops…Mitsubishi, Toshiba and Fuji Electric…supply about 70% of the steam turbines and power gear used internationally…and they could stand to benefit greatly if there were a geothermal boom…"

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"Geothermal power plants, once up and running, provide extremely cheap power with very low emissions. But the sector faces some serious challenges, not the least of which is getting investors onboard. Geothermal's front-end cost is high in order to assess sites for potential and do exploratory drilling that doesn't always pan out…[D]rilling…very deep… [may] cause geologic instability, which…can be a hard sell.

"Geothermal power plants also aren't all that pretty. They release a lot of steam into the air and rely on networks of above-ground piping that can be a bit of an eyesore…[In] Japan…areas in which geothermal potential is the highest are revered for their natural beauty and centuries-old…baths…In recent years, some…[bathers] have butted heads with Tokyo's push for more small geothermal plants…But that might change: many of the [bathers] are located in the devastated northeast. A plume of steam from a geothermal plant on the horizon…[is not] worse for [bathhouse spas] than the specter of radiation that will hang over this part of the nation for decades."