THE GEOTHERMAL RESEARCH SOCIETY OF JAPAN

(GRSJ)

About our society: President’s greetings

Sachio Ehara

　　　 Welcome to the homepage of The Geothermal Research Society of Japan. I hope these web pages give you good information about Japanese geothermal energy on both resources and utilization. Our society published a statement on geothermal energy use in Japan in October, 2008 to encourage geothermal developments in the country. Its copies are distributed to concerning authorities and organizations. The messages in the statement are as follows;

　　　 “Global warming is a great matter of concern for every sector on the earth. Its acceleration may defeat our lives if we continue present energy consuming activities. On the other hand, rising oil price gives economical damages to all kinds of industries including transportation and agriculture. Furthermore, petroleum production peak may limit its supply in the near future.

　　　 These problems on earth’s environment and energy security should be considered as most urgent matter, which may be solved by efforts of long-term and global scale. However, measures for such problems in Japan are further behind those of other developed countries, such as European countries.

　　　 Developments of renewable energies need legal supports because their production cost is still higher than thermal or nuclear power plants so that power suppliers needs other incentives. However, except for recent policy on photovoltaic power generation, Japanese policies on renewable energies are generally not in effect. Especially geothermal energy, which has high potential in the country, and shares highest power production rates with hydropower among renewables, is almost out of focus from the government’s policy. Geothermal development in Japan has been stopped for a decade because of high development cost, untouchable national parks, and luck of communication with the local residents. All these problems may be solved by new rules by the government.

　　　　 Thus delayed development of geothermal energy is a significant loss for Japanese citizens. Living in the third highest geothermal potential country after Indonesia and USA, our mission is to advertise and promote geothermal energy to the government, private sectors, and citizens. The Geothermal Research Society of Japan shall do any effort to achieve this mission.”