Issues around geothermal energy and society in Japan

Abstract

From 1967 geothermal power generation in Japan increased rather rapidly till 1999. The main players had been private sector supported by government’s subsidies. However various socio-economic reasons prevented private sectors from investing in new geothermal development in the 21st century. Legal frameworks and regulations kept geothermal power generation in Japan quite costly and opposition by local people involved in “hot-spring business” delayed geothermal projects. Then finally after the great east Japan earthquake and its following nuclear accident in 2011, the federal government renewed economic supports for geothermal development and modified some regulations which had been limiting geothermal development. Therefore, the currently remaining biggest barrier to geothermal development is social acceptance especially by local hot-spring business people. Although social study on this matter has just started recently and has not been applied to real system yet, experience from the past failure project enables us to consider possible solutions to apply to the society. Thus the federal government has begun supporting activities by developers or local governments for social acceptance.