Japan boosts small-scale geothermal plant installations

These could help boost its total capacity by 272MW by 2028.

Japan trails only the United States and Indonesia in terms of its potential for geothermal power with 23GW of capacity waiting to be uncovered, according to Fitch Solutions. However, its actual capacity remains underwhelming with only 0.5GW installed by the end of 2018.

With relatively limited hydrocarbon and uranium reserves, Japan relies heavily on imported feedstock for power generation. “In an effort to boost domestically independent power supply in the country, the government has eased regulations for small-scale geothermal power projects, attracting greater investment in the industry over recent years,” Fitch Solutions said.

Japan’s considerable potential has also proven attractive to investors in utility-scale geothermal power capacity, evident in its sizable geothermal projects pipeline exceeding 700MW; one of the largest of any market globally.

“However, concerns regarding the impact on the country's onsen (hot spring) business and natural environment, as well as the relatively high upfront costs for new projects and long development timeframes, have weighed heavily on large-scale geothermal capacity investment,” Fitch Solutions said.

The firm projects that the country's geothermal capacity growth over the coming decade will hit 272MW to reach 850MW by 2028. This will rank Japan in fourth place for total geothermal capacity growth over Fitch Solutions’ 10-year forecast period worldwide, outperformed only by far larger markets such as Indonesia, Turkey and Kenya.

Photo by Si-take. at ja.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0