Geothermal energy in JapanEnergy productionThe Japanese Islands are located on the Pacific Ring of Fire and are endowed with geothermal resources. Despite this, the use of geothermal energy in Japan is still limited, mainly due to legal, social and socio-economic barriers. The three main obstacles are; 1) regulation of natural parks, 2) cost and risk of development, and 3) social acceptance. However, after the 2011 nuclear accident, the government amended several regulations on nature parks and introduced new economic incentives to promote the use of geothermal energy. The government has also launched several actions to increase social acceptance of geothermal development. With such government support, the private sector has turned radically to geothermal development.
The total installed capacity of geothermal power plants in Japan was approximately 555 MWe at the end of 2019. Annual electricity production in fiscal year 2017 was approximately 2 GWh (Yasukawa et al., 409).