Small geothermal plant planned for Okushiri Island in the north of Japan
Landing approach to Okushiri Island, Hokkaido, Japan (source: flickr/ Hideyuki KAMON, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
8 Jun 2013
A local municipality and a local developer are planning a small 500 kW geothermal power plant on the remote island of Okushiri off the coast of Hokkaido in the north of Japan.
Japan is not seeing as much geothermal development as one would have expected following the renewable energy drive after the Fukushima disaster.
But there are signs of things happening and while larger development is planned close to or in National Parks, there are also some promising stories about smaller scale development plans, such as this one reported recently from an island off the coast of Hokkaido in the North of Japan.
The island of Okushiri is planning a 500 kW geothermal power plant, which could start operations as early as 2016 according to local and central government sources. The plant would be the first geothermal installation on a remote island location that would tap into Japan’s recently installed feed-in-tariff scheme.
The 500 kW (0.5 MW) capacity would provide around a quarter of the capacity needed to serve demand on the island. Currently the island depends no fossil fuel for electricity production. Power from the planned plant would be bought by Hokkaido Electric Power Co.
The project plans to tap into two wells on the western side of the island. The wells were drilled in 2008 by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization and are offered to the developer, which will decrease the development cost.
The development is done in parts by a local oil distributor, who also thinks about using the facilities for a hot spring facility.
The temperature from the wells at a depth of 1,600 meters is about 200 degrees Celsius, which were then found to be not sufficient for a profitable project. With the support of the Energy Agency, the town and the potential developer will do tests on the wells starting in September this year.
Town officials see the project as not only a potential supplier of “stable supply of electricity”, but also helping the island to be come a “renewable energy island”.
Today there is only one geothermal power plant in existence on a remote island in Japan. That plant is run by Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Hachijo Island south of Tokyo since 1999. More renewable energy development is planned on that island.
Source: Kyodo News International via GlobalPost
