Japan has found that geothermal power can replace nuclear. There is a viable alternative and they need once since their disaster a few months back. Japan is on earhtquake faults, so they have plenty of geothermal power available. Sometimes I smell the nuclear industry being much more politically connected in the past few decades so it got the contracts instead.
A while back the nuclear industry felt it was in the running to supply the oil sands with energy, why doesn't geothermal energy make it into the debate? It is safer and has very low emissions. Nuclear energy should be mothballed.
Japan May Tap Geothermal Power to Offset Atomic Loss, BNEF Says - Bloomberg
Japan May Tap Geothermal Power to Offset Atomic Loss, BNEF Says
Q
By Stuart Biggs - Jun 5, 2011 11:47 PM PT
Japan can increase the amount of electricity it generates using geothermal resources to offset power shortages as the government reconsiders its reliance on nuclear energy, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said.
The country has the potential to be one of the “world’s biggest generators of geothermal power,” the renewable energy research arm of Bloomberg LP said in a report. There have been no major projects since 1996 and geothermal plants, which use underground hot water and steam to drive turbines, account for 0.2 percent of Japan’s power capacity, according to the report.
Projects are hindered by regulations including a ban on drilling wells in natural parks, which contain about 82 percent of Japan’s estimated 23.5 gigawatts of geothermal resources, according to the report by Tokyo-based analyst Yugo Nakamura. A gigawatt is about equal to the output of a new atomic reactor.
“If the government wants to bring about a step-increase in the development of geothermal power, it will have to review all existing regulations, in particular on access to natural parks and streamlining the project application and approval process,” the report said.
Opposition to development also comes from Japan’s “onsen,” or hot-spring owners, concerned that the use of underground hot water to generate electricity may harm their businesses.
Japan plans to introduce a feed-in tariff, or subsidized power price, of 15 yen ($0.19) per kilowatt-hour next year to cover the added cost of generating electricity from underground steam, a measure it forecast will add as much as 500 megawatts of capacity within a decade, the report said. Japan currently has 537 megawatts of installed geothermal capacity.
The government is preparing a long-term energy strategy in the wake of the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, where three reactors melted down after they were hit by an earthquake and tsunami in March. The plan is expected to emphasize the role of renewable energy.
A while back the nuclear industry felt it was in the running to supply the oil sands with energy, why doesn't geothermal energy make it into the debate? It is safer and has very low emissions. Nuclear energy should be mothballed.
Japan May Tap Geothermal Power to Offset Atomic Loss, BNEF Says - Bloomberg
Japan May Tap Geothermal Power to Offset Atomic Loss, BNEF Says
Q
By Stuart Biggs - Jun 5, 2011 11:47 PM PT
Japan can increase the amount of electricity it generates using geothermal resources to offset power shortages as the government reconsiders its reliance on nuclear energy, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said.
The country has the potential to be one of the “world’s biggest generators of geothermal power,” the renewable energy research arm of Bloomberg LP said in a report. There have been no major projects since 1996 and geothermal plants, which use underground hot water and steam to drive turbines, account for 0.2 percent of Japan’s power capacity, according to the report.
Projects are hindered by regulations including a ban on drilling wells in natural parks, which contain about 82 percent of Japan’s estimated 23.5 gigawatts of geothermal resources, according to the report by Tokyo-based analyst Yugo Nakamura. A gigawatt is about equal to the output of a new atomic reactor.
“If the government wants to bring about a step-increase in the development of geothermal power, it will have to review all existing regulations, in particular on access to natural parks and streamlining the project application and approval process,” the report said.
Opposition to development also comes from Japan’s “onsen,” or hot-spring owners, concerned that the use of underground hot water to generate electricity may harm their businesses.
Japan plans to introduce a feed-in tariff, or subsidized power price, of 15 yen ($0.19) per kilowatt-hour next year to cover the added cost of generating electricity from underground steam, a measure it forecast will add as much as 500 megawatts of capacity within a decade, the report said. Japan currently has 537 megawatts of installed geothermal capacity.
The government is preparing a long-term energy strategy in the wake of the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, where three reactors melted down after they were hit by an earthquake and tsunami in March. The plan is expected to emphasize the role of renewable energy.
