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Small scale plant development to expand in Japan

Small scale plant development to expand in Japan Geothermal hot spring near Kokonoe, Oita Prefecture, Japan (source: flickr/ monkist, creative commons)
Alexander Richter 21 May 2014

The market for small-scale geothermal projects of less than 100 kW is expected to expand due to its ease of set-up in connection with hot springs.

An article by Bloomberg today talks about the geothermal market in Japan and in particular the expected growth in small-scale geothermal projects.

IHI Corp. is mentioned as having developed a 20-kW generator for geothermal that could be set up within a day. At a cost of $119,000 it clearly could be an interesting option for small scale hot springs in Japan.

It seems like larger projects having a difficult time, due to local opposition and fear of impacting tourism.

A big positive for these small scale projects is that they can be deployed quickly, cost effective and with existing well structures not requiring additional drilling.

Despite big plans, currently there are only 13 MW of new geothermal power generation capacity approved in Japan.

For the full article see link below.

Source: Bloomberg