Geothermal energy, cheap and clean, could help run Japan So why not?

A favorite getaway for travelers to Japan is a retreat in one of the thousands of hot springs, nestled in the mountains or located on scenic coasts, some of which have been visited for centuries.

They are all powered by Japan’s abundant geothermal energy. In fact, Japan has so much potential for geothermal energy that, if harnessed to generate electricity, it could play a major role in replacing the country’s coal, gas or nuclear power plants.

For decades, however, Japan’s geothermal energy ambitions have been blocked by the surprisingly powerful owners of hot springs.

“Rapid geothermal development threatens our culture,” said Yoshiyasu Sato, owner of Daimaru Asunaroso, a remote inn next to a hot spring in the mountains of Fukushima Prefecture, said to be some 1,300 years old. “If something were to happen to our onsens,” he said, using the Japanese word for hot springs, “who’s going to pay?”

Japan, an archipelago thought to sit atop the third-largest geothermal resources of any country on Earth, uses astonishingly little of its geothermal wealth. It generates about 0.3 percent of its electricity from geothermal energy, a missed opportunity, analysts say, for a resource-poor country that desperately needs new and cleaner ways to generate energy.

An answer to that puzzle lies in Japan’s venerable hot springs, like the one at the inn run by Mr. Sato. For decades, inns like his have resisted geothermal projects for fear they would damage their mineral-rich hot springs.

As a preventative measure, Mr Sato has equipped Asunaroso with monitoring devices that monitor water flows and temperatures in real time, and he is urging onsens across the country to do the same. He has led the opposition to geothermal development as the president of an organization loosely translated as the Society to Protect Japan’s Secluded Hot Springs.

Tokyo bureaucrats, Japan’s giant electric utilities, and even the country’s manufacturing giants were no match. “We cannot forcibly move forward with a project without proper understanding,” said Shuji Ajima of the Tokyo-based Electric Power Development Company, also known as J-Power, which operates just one geothermal plant in Japan, accounting for 0.1 percent of its power generation. The utility has had to abandon a number of geothermal projects in recent decades.

“Geothermal power plants will never be game-changers, but I believe they can still play a role in carbon-free energy,” he said.

Hot springs are a small natural wonder, fueled by rainwater that seeps into the rock that is heated by the Earth’s interior before bubbling to the surface, a process that takes years, even decades.

More than 13,000 onsen inns and baths across the country. There are strict rules, displayed in numerous languages ​​on posters pasted on onsen walls. No swimwear. No soapy bodies allowed. And an additional Covid-era requirement, “mokuyoku”, or silent bathing – no chatter in the baths.

Geothermal power plants, on the other hand, draw from wells drilled deeper into the Earth’s crust and pump up steam and hot water to power giant turbines that generate electricity. Developers say that because plants draw from wells deep below onsen springs, there’s little chance of one affecting the other.

Yet the interconnection between hot springs and deeper geothermal heat remains a mystery. When hot springs change flows, it is often difficult to pinpoint a cause.

“We don’t yet fully understand the full implications of geothermal development,” said Yuki Yusa, professor emeritus and expert in geothermal sciences at Kyoto University.

Japan, the world’s fifth largest emitter of planet-warming gases, needs more clean energy to meet its climate goals and curb its dependence on fossil fuel imports. After the nuclear disaster in Fukushima in 2011, a large part of the nuclear energy program came to a standstill. Geothermal energy’s green credentials, coupled with its relatively low cost and ability to produce electricity consistently 24 hours a day, have made it a promising source of renewable energy.

The Japanese government, which aims to triple the country’s geothermal capacity by 2030, has sought to pave the way for more projects by opening up geothermal development in national parks and speeding up environmental assessments.

If Japan developed all of its conventional geothermal resources for electricity production, it could provide about 10 percent of Japan’s electricity, according to the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies in Tokyo. That would be more electricity than Japan generated in 2019 from hydro, solar, wind or nuclear power.

“It’s domestic, it’s renewable,” said Jacques Hymans, an energy expert at the University of Southern California. “It’s all Japan needs.”

But across Japan, local governments have recently introduced a new set of restrictions. Kusatsu, an onsen resort town north of Tokyo, passed an ordinance last year that would place the responsibility on developers seeking the city’s approval to prove that a geothermal project would not impact local hot springs, a difficult hurdle. Oita, a prefecture with more onsen resources than any other in Japan, recently expanded a no-drill zone in the city of Beppu, considered Japan’s onsen capital.

“We understand the country’s energy needs,” said Yutaka Seki, executive director of the National Hot Spring Association, which represents inns across the country. “We’re not against geothermal for the sake of being against it,” he said. “But we strongly warn against uncontrolled large-scale development.”

In Beppu, steam is everywhere. It flows through the streets and envelops the mansions.

For decades, large hotels, inns, and even private homes drained the region’s onsens, severely depleting the resources of thermal springs. Most onsens now use pumps to force hot water out of the ground.

Large-scale geothermal development is excluded. “We are talking about what we need to do to preserve the culture and established way of life of Beppu,” said Hidehiko Hida, head of the municipal office responsible for onsens.

About 65 kilometers away is a rarity: a large geothermal power station. It is the largest in the country. But it’s also four decades old and Kyushu Electric, the regional utility, hasn’t been able to build plants of a similar scale since then.

“It’s hard to find a place willing to say yes,” said Takanori Senju, head of the utility’s geothermal research team.

A generous government policy of paying above market price for geothermal energy has more recently led to a wave of smaller geothermal projects. But most plants built since the policy was passed are small, powering perhaps just a few hundred homes. That way they can avoid environmental assessments and restrictions.

But they are too small to have a significant effect on Japan’s overall energy market, experts say.

‌

Yuzawa, in the snowy northern province of Akita, is a rare example of a hot spring town that has embraced geothermal energy.

An early developer, Dowa Mining, involved local community leaders in the planning, hired the city’s top graduates, sent officials to local festivals, and even offered to drill wells for local onsens. For its part, the local government was eager to stimulate a new industry in a remote region of Japan. A local milkman now uses the hot spring water to pasteurize his milk and yogurt.

Japan had hoped for more Yuzawas. The country opened its first commercial, large-scale geothermal power plants in 1966, with operators adding a dozen more over the following decades, including one in Yuzawa. But with increasing local opposition from hot spring inns, Japan has added almost no geothermal capacity since the 1990s.

That’s even while Japanese manufacturing giants, such as Toshiba, have come to dominate the global geothermal turbine market. Very little of their business is on their own property.

So in 2019, when Japan’s first major geothermal plant opened in Yuzawa in 23 years, with the capacity to power nearly 100,000 households, it was a breakthrough.

The biggest challenge for any geothermal project in Japan is not related to the geology or technology, said Shun Iwata, a retired Dowa Mining manager who was embedded in Yuzawa for nearly two decades trying to bring the idea to locals. He is now an advisor to the city. “What’s more important is community work and relationship building,” he said.

But even in Yuzawa there has been controversy. Since the end of 2020, a local inn had to close periodically after the spring dwindled.

The city of Yuzawa claims that the city’s geothermal development was not the cause.

“I can’t say I’m not worried,” said Masami Shibata of Abe Ryokan, one of Yuzawa’s thermal inns. Still, geothermal power has become part of the fabric of the city of Yuzawa, she said. “I think it’s possible for both hot springs and geothermal energy to coexist.”