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yuiyoshida

(41,765 posts)
Mon Jun 20, 2016, 08:32 PM Jun 2016

Naked Bathers and Tradition Stymie Japan’s Clean Energy Ambition


With centuries of tradition on their side, Japan’s horde of naked bathers remain unmoved by the island nation’s bid to tap a rich reserve of power equivalent to about 20 nuclear reactors.
The resource-poor country, which last year spent 18.2 trillion yen ($174 billion) importing fossil fuels, has the world’s third-largest geothermal reserves, representing an estimated 23 gigawatts of power, according to the International Energy Agency’s geothermal division. Less than 600 megawatts, or about 2 percent, of that capacity is being used at the moment, according to the agency.

Japan’s hot springs, known locally as “onsen,” have been in use for more than a millennium as communal baths. Additionally, to this day, heat bubbling up from below the Earth’s surface is used in some mountain villages to boil eggs or to keep roads free of winter snow and ice.
Tapping that resource on a much larger scale remains elusive. At the end of 2015, Japan had about one-third the installed geothermal capacity of Indonesia and one-fifth the U.S., according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance data. Moreover, Japan’s geothermal capacity has been little changed since at least 2000.

Now, development of the resource is under greater scrutiny as questions arise over how Japan will meet carbon emission reductions pledged at Paris climate talks in December and as efforts to restart the country’s nuclear fleet flounder because of legal actions and public opposition.
To read a QuickTake on the global push to limit fossil fuel pollution.

“Of course we want to develop our resources at the speed of Turkey or Indonesia, but it is very difficult because of the problems related to hot springs and national natural parks,” Toru Saito, chief secretary of the Japan Geothermal Association, said by phone. “We are hindered because our environmental reviews take a lot of time.”

Environmental assessments and survey drilling can take as long as nine years, according to the government. After receiving environmental approval, setting up a facility can take four years.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-20/naked-bathers-and-tradition-stymie-japan-s-clean-energy-ambition
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