Business
trend
Three
companies of Idemitsu Kosan, INPEX, and Mitsubishi Materials drew a plan to
build the nation’s largest geothermal plant in Fukushima Prefecture, responding
to the conditional deregulation of excavation inside national and quasi-national
parks published by the Ministry of the Environment. The new geothermal plant is
scheduled to start operation toward 2020. The scheduled output is 270,000 kW
that is a quarter of the output of a nuclear power plant. Made up of several
plants with an output of 50,000 kW each, the new plant will supply power to
70,000 households. Total investment will be 100 billion yen. Japan Petroleum Exploration and Mitsui Oil Exploration will supposedly joint the three
companies, and the project will supposedly be carried out by a total of nine
companies. The companies involved will hold a presentation meeting in April. They
will give the highest priority to local employment for public works like road construction
and work out measures for the attraction of tourists.
Japan
has the world’s third largest geothermal resources with about 24,000,000 kW
following the U.S. and Indonesia, but it currently has an output of about
540,000 kW because 80% of resources are inside its national and quasi-national
parks. The new plant with an output of 270,000 kW will surpass the Hachobaru Plant operated by Kyusyu Electric Power that is currently the largest
geothermal plant in Japan. According to the government committee working on
power generation costs, geothermal generation costs 9-11 yen per kW that is almost
the same level of coal fired power generation. Toshiba, Mitsubishi Heavy, and
Fuji Electric have a combined share of 70% in the geothermal plant market in
the world. Intensifying competition will inevitably accelerate technological
innovation of all companies involved.
Currently, Japan's largest geothermal plant in Kyushu that has an output of 110,000 kW. The new geothermal plant planned by Idemitsu Kosan and others will have an output of 270,000 kW.
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