| Keywords |
geothermal energy, FIT, national park, reading time, small binary, GHP, hot spring region, education |
| Abstract |
After serious nuclear accident with big earthquake at 2011, the research and development of geothermal restarted and several regulations changed in Japan. And to progress geothermal development, we had several problems as follows, 1) High initial cost, 2) 80% of geothermal potential exists inside special region of national park and we cannot develop at these region, 3) several hot spring owners resist to development due to afraid decreasing hot spring fluid. To solve these problems, our government decided to introduce the Feed-In Tariff for geothermal energy as 25JPY/kW (about 0.3AUD/kW) and to permit to development in the low class part of special region in national park at 2012. Then, research and development started at several site especially north of Japan and the first flush type geothermal power plant after nuclear accident will start in Yuzawa site with 40 MW at 2019. And to get the understanding from hot spring owners, we are developing the simulator to estimate the relationship between geothermal reservoir and hot spring reservoir. And we proposed to introduce small binary system (about 50kW) using waste high temperature (about 100 degreeC) hot spring water. Several Japanese companies developed HFC binary system and several hot spring sites introduced this system. And the production test using Kalina system is progressing at Matsunoyama site. We still have several problems as follows, 1) longer reading time than other countries, 2) High cost of small binary system, 3) scale and corrosion of geothermal generation system, 4) education and risk communication. And we have to promote the GHP system and try to restart the research of EGS in Japan. |