Marubeni Corp, the biggest investor in electricity generation among Japan’s trading houses, is working on how to revive the geothermal industry and tap heat that powers volcanos as an alternative to nuclear reactors.
The effort would draw pools of underground heat with a potential of double the current capacity of geothermal projects operating worldwide. That would help Japan shift away from atomic reactors that provided 30 percent of the nation’s power before the accident in Fukushima two years ago.
“We’ve focused on hydro before,” Masahiro Uegaki, assistant general manager of Marubeni’s domestic power projects, said in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo. “Recently we are developing solar, wind and other renewable energies. Geothermal is one of our new activities.”
Expanding geothermal would benefit turbine makers such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd and Toshiba Corp, both of which already supply equipment outside Japan. Marubeni’s study is possible since the government last year eased rules to allow geothermal in protected national parks, part of an effort to boost supplies of renewable energy.
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