Japan posts top growth in clean energy spending

Geothermal is great... I hope Japan can get some projects going (just 5 plants with enough capacity may cover around 30 % of the energy requirements)....

But there are problem, a couple in fact... more technical and financial than anything, that are the main reason for Japan not to take on in large scale the GeoTherm Generation.

One is the cost of land... in order to "dig a hole" for the Geo Therm you need to buy land, that is expensive.

Two and this is the most important, the time and money that needs to make a Geo Therm. people fail to realize but, in order to dig for thermal water (hot springs) you need at leas two years in the best of conditions in order to "dig the hole". That is for hot water that is located around 1500 meters deep. Takes around 3 to 4 yeast for an oil well (around 3000 meter).. now in order to reach a place hot enough to boil water (no reaching the lava mantel) you need to at leas dig up to 8000 meters, this may vary to the location... think how much time and money you are going to need for this. Give you an Idea... a simple water well of only 200 meters deep cost around USD 1 million, only in machinery.

Three... the place to dig the hole, unfortunately the Geo Therm cannot be dig every where you have to look for the place to do so and optimal places are rare. Yes you can dig every were but you may need to dig like 10000 meters or more and that is not good.

So Geo Therm Power needs a lot of thinking, searching, talking and investing

what is the cost effectiveness of poising the planet for hundreds of generations and walking away for no reason other than inertia? Earthquakes are a problem so I guess I'll champion nuclear power and say there's nothing wrong with that because during an earthquake I would feel perfectly safe. Um...No.

Geothermal removes 50% of the electrical load of a building, so the energy savings are there. I'm talking per building or per neighbourhood, not giant far away power plants. Geothermal doesn't have to be deep to be effective especially if vertical boreholes are replaced with cheaper horizontal plowing. This has been done commercially by Walmart of all companies over six years ago. They see the value of saving energy because it's low hanging fruit in their operations.

Hydrothermal is a key winner for Japan, because it's an island nation with many cities along the coastlines.

Heliothermal wouldn't have to wait for solar panel production to be useful.

Subtract the electrical load with a geoexchange pump and housing relying on nuclear simply isn't needed anymore. And we no longer have to justify and revel in our pollution to generations to come.

sf2kApr. 08, 2014 - 06:27AM JST The large elephant in the room is why a Ring of Fire country doesn't use Geothermal, and all the other thermals (geo, hydro, helio) as practised successfully with commercial examples all around the world?

It Probably has to do with economics of expenive upfront cost. Every energy source has risks. Nuclear is still the most cost effective energy. No wonder China is building close to 30 powerplants within a decade. On the geothermal, there is risk for earthquakes and other risks of artificial geothermal energy. When engineers build an underground geothermal system, they create something like an earthquake underground. It happens during fracturing, as the hot rock collapses on itself and slips.

The large elephant in the room is why a Ring of Fire country doesn't use Geothermal, and all the other thermals (geo, hydro, helio) as practised successfully with commercial examples all around the world? Geothermal scales, doesn't have as many building restrictions as nuclear waste, won't kill people during an earthquake and can replace baseload of heating and air conditioning in buildings of whatever scale. Typically savings of 55% of electricity from the size of malls to homes.

Sure, it's not sexy solar panels, but it would create jobs and utterly delete the requirement of any nuclear power ever again which at best can only cover 15% of need. Geothermal is progress through demand subtraction. Geothermal removes the need to desire the electricity for buildings. Add solar panels on top of that, and Japan will be laughing!

BTW, if you're wondering about intermittent solar, Google molten salt energy storage. Include all the other green energy systems and it would be very cool to see Japan leading on energy

Hope you enjoy your Lamborghini energy. Not sure who in the world will buy the products produced with those energy costs. Likely more expansion for our Honda plants here in Ohio, Toyota in Kentucky, Subaru in Indiana, Nissan in Tennessee, Mercedes in Mississippi, BMW in South Carolina. Unless the Democrats can win an election and work on destroying our economy more effectively than they have accomplished so far.

Just bring back the nuclear power plants, Its a no brainer, Choose, Japanese people, die economically sooner or die by a lottery death due to the probability of disaster. There is a time factor that the friggin environmentalists fail to realize...

Although this does not compensate for the enormous amounts of dangerous non-biodegradable substances spewed into the ecosystems sea air and land, it is a step in the right direction! Investment into R&D for renewables can turn Japan into amazing energy change model studied by all business schools and environment agencies globally. This will be the type of technologies to export, not nuclear....

".....nearly all in solar energy."

Not to sound like a downer, but why doesn't Japan take advantage of its vast geothermal potential? With almost nil in the way of fossil fuels, developing geothermal energy seems like a no-brainer.

'Japan was a major exception to the trend, ramping up investment in clean energy by 80% year-on-year to $28.6 billion—nearly all in solar energy', a global example for a host of reasons that needs to be followed.

Central Europe's reticence is very disappointing . And France obsession with everything nuclear is alarming.

Credit where credit due, 'China remained the top investor in clean energy in 2013', setting a global example along with Japan, perhaps a area where both could pool resources.

Properties in UK are combining ground source heat pumps (pipe work is buried in the garden) with solar too.

Also extremely encouraging new developments in solar, if this new technology can be incorporated into roof elevations , properties can move towards clean self sustainable personal energy without the huge public works infrastructure.

Next generation solar cells: Trapping sunlight with microbeads.

http://www.apollon.uio.no/english/articles/2013/trapping-sunlight.html

Solar panel made with ion cannon (from 2012 the principal behind the research is sound) cheap enough to challenge fossil fuels

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/122231-solar-panels-made-with-ion-cannon-are-cheap-enough-to-challenge-fossil-fuels

Lastly, Check out the Solar house in the article below ( scroll down), 'what is claimed to be the UK’s first home entirely powered by the sun'.

http://www.theguardian.com/npower-energy-efficiency/gallery/2013/dec/30/11-of-the-uks-greenest-homes

There are a fair number of these solar farms if you will springing up where I am, they don't look good BUT the lots they are on were often worse with all the garbage & collapsed sheds & crap they were before so a step in the right direction

Keep going pls!!

Japan should continue on working on its strategic goal: a diversified source of baseload energy.

This would mean an efficient, effective and safe combination of nuclear, fossil and renewable energy sources.

Fantastic! Keep it up.

To all Japanese engineers whose ideas are still in box;

You know that Japan has other energy resources available that you are not exploring and utilizing them yet. You are not trying hard enough. Go get it!!

Cool, I hope Japan continues to invest in green energy. Could only be good for the country and the world at large if they find an alternative to fossil fuels.

Something interesting for you all, Japan is launching a satellite (next year, I believe) that will test the feasibility of beaming power from space. Pretty awesome!

Read "Green Illusions"

This is encouraging. And now we know we won't be going back to lighting with whale oil, like in the good old "traditional" days. :-)

Considering the way TEPCO's unfavorable growing reputation I can only see Japan's interest in alternative energy to continue growing.