Japan’s hot-spring resorts are blocking geothermal energy plants

livemint.com:

America and Indonesia, but ranks tenth in terms of geothermal power generation. For a country heavily dependent on imported energy and struggling to honour its commitment to decarbonise its economy by 2050, this represents a huge missed opportunity. Japan’s sprawling onsen (hot spring) industry is the main obstacle to geothermal development.

Though many geologists reckon there is little chance of geothermal plants negatively affecting bathing pools (which are generally filled by much shallower aquifers than the geothermal reservoirs energy companies look for), the onsen industry is unconvinced. “The government relies on hot springs for its tourism—what are they going to do if the hot springs disappear because they keep building geothermal power plants?" asks Sato Yoshiyasu of the Japan Onsen Association, a big industry group. Japan’s 3,000 hot-spring resorts routinely withhold the consent necessary for development to proceed.

And the fact that they are deeply rooted in Japanese culture, and attract around 130m visitors a year, has largely deterred the government from pushing back. There are other obstacles to geothermal development. Some 80% of Japan’s reserves are in national parks.

Much of Japan is mountainous. Its underground geology is relatively complex, with layers of hard rock that are difficult to drill through. Whereas countries such as Indonesia that produce a lot of geothermal power often have relatively large, well-connected power stations, Japan’s tend to be small and scattered.